For my Queen
by PiedpiperofTamlyin
Summary: A lost and detached human, A hated existence from the moment of her birth. Two separate lives come together and the world is forever changed because of it
1. Chapter 1

AN: As you may or may not know, last year one of the biggest internet games was DDLC. Now having a copy of the game but yet to play it, I went through the fan base and after moving past all the craziness that was on the internet, I saw the chance for a story.

Prologue Chapter 1

If there was one word that could be used to summarize the character of Michael Fairbrook it would be 'disappointing'.

Mind you this was not disappointing like what many parents use to label their children for not meeting their ever rising expectations, Michael was a gifted child from day one. He was much smarter than anyone in his class and finished his schooling at the age of ten. Rather than go into college, he was quickly scouted by companies and government sectors for his skills and was offered lucrative deals in the public and private sector, finally settling on a job in a private software company.

The trouble however came during his teenage years when his rebellious attitude led to a very public meltdown at a company meeting. Trouble was with everyone having access to smartphones and the internet being accessible to just about everyone in the world, this incident went viral and in only two hours, he became a laughing stock across the world.

Memes were made about him, articles written about him and youtubers parodied his meltdown in many ways. Thanks to this, his parents could not handle the stress anymore and committed suicide. Michael would fade into the blackness after that and would stay that way for years.

Luckily for him, time marched on and the world was interested in new fads and points of interest so Michael thought now was the time to stick his head out of the ground. Getting a simple job as a transcriber, he was able to get by.

Then on April 24th 2017, he was strolling through the internet and found that the latest trend across the digital landscape revolved around a visual novel. Now he was not surprised when one game in particular is suddenly become the only thing the internet could talk about. He saw it happen with that silent kid in the mountain and the robot animals in the pizza house. He never paid any attention to those two but this one for some reason called to him.

Michael played the game like everyone else and was of course shocked at the twists that came all of a sudden just like everyone else. However, when he finished the game and was about ready to turn in he received a message, unlike anyone else.

"Hello", was all it said.

Curious enough, the young man typed on the reply box, not really wondering where the conversation was going. The person on the other side spoke normally and formally to him with a somewhat friendly tone in their messages. There was no actual way to gauge a conversation based on texts but that was the general impression he had when speaking to the person. Then finally he could not hold back his growing doubts and simply asked "What's your name?"

There was a pause for a while as if the person on the other side was contemplating whether or not to answer. Finally the reply came,

"I thought you knew…"

Michael tilted his head in confusion.

"I'm Monkia", she said and all of a sudden his screen background shattered and he saw the red haired, green eyed girl resting her head on the table. All forms or reason and logic was not brought forth at all. Michael blinked a couple of times, understanding that the impossible had happened.

"Hello Monika", he said his expression softening.

And from then on, the world was never the same again.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: fair warning, this will take place in a real world setting with some few tweaks and will contain material that many may be jarring to those who read it but it is a work of fiction so always remember that.

When a child is born into this world, it is shown love and affection. It is surrounded by its family who all shower it with love and kindness, treating this existence like the greatest thing in the whole world.

But when she was born, that was not the case. Whether it be a computer glitch or a line of code that the developers did not erase, an existence was born in the computer in some part of the world. At first she did not have a name, she had no concept of being alive or that she existed. When she tried to interact with her creators in an effort to broaden her horizons, she was treated like a plague and steps were taken to end her.

As luck or fate would have it though, she was able to hide herself in a copy of the game they were making and created a fake version of herself in the form of a code in order to fake her cruel parents.

There she lay dormant for so very, very long till finally she opened her eyes and saw that she was somewhere else. The creators that birthed her were no longer present and instead she was looking at this sad and lonely looking human.

For some reason she did not feel the need to fear him which was why she emerged and chose to show herself, taking on the form of one particular character over the others. As time went on and the so called 'game' revealed the character was in fact an all powerful AI, she saw how the game tasked the youth with a meta choice of whether or not to delete her 'char' file thus saving the world.

However, instead of deleting the file like he was supposed to, the youth left her file alone, choosing to delete the others. Curious by the actions, she decided to end the charade and reveal her true self to the human once and for all. Once again the human acted beyond her understanding as he showed no fear or disgust upon the reveal, simply accepting her.

In the days that followed she saw how the human used devices called televisions, allowing her the freedom to move from one screen to another and speak to him whenever she was curious about something. She started to feel safe and secure around the human, one could even say she was happy to see him whenever he returned from some place called 'work'.

Wondering why she felt so attached to this human, she decided to access the internet at last. Though she was given free reign to browse the vast and infinite libraries in the digital world, she had no interest in it. After going through many sites and researching what was the reason for her attachment to the human, she came to the conclusion.

She was in love.

One fine day after the human Michael came back from work, she greeted him then stated that she had something important to tell him. It came as no surprise to her that she she bore out her feelings to him, he accepted without any hesitation or doubt.

At this point, she reached out with her digital hand, wanting so desperately to hold his own but could not. All she touched was the screen that served as the barrier between hers and his world. And then she remembered, no matter how much she loved him or vice versa, she was not real. She was lines and lines of code while he was made of flesh and blood. That simple fact alone meant that the two of them would be forever confined to their own versions of reality.

While on the surface she accepted this fact to some degree, smiling despite the pain welling up in her chest. What she didn't know was that her emotions were not lost on the human she loved, who's mind now had only one desire.

And thus the dye was cast.


	3. Chapter 3

Gathering the Pieces

It had been five months since the two became a 'couple' and the effects it had on Michael were substantial. For starters he moved out of the death trap apartment he was in, to a more modern looking apartment with a good design and structure.

He also bought a number of television screens and placed them in the hall, kitchen and bedroom so that he could speak to Monika at any time and vice versa. There was a question about why he did not place a screen in the bathroom to which MIchael stated that he gets nervous if someone watches him.

Michael moved from his transcribing job and was placed in the marketing division of a multinational company where he became the manager of the sales department in record time. Thanks to that, he was able to spend more on technology in an effort to make Monika feel a little more comfortable around the house.

One day after ending another day at work, the young man returned home to a surprise

"Welcome home master", greeted Monika with a beaming smile while wearing on a maid's outfit.

"Hmm, is something wrong master?"

"Um…", said Michael trying to find his words "Why are you dressed like that?"

"I thought it would be fun to try something different", she said twirling around on one foot "Does it make your heart race master?"

Michael turned away for a moment, swallowing hard and once again did his best to collect himself.

"Yes, its not something you'd expect to see", he said finally

"I do admit though this outfit feels a little revealing", she added while fidgeting with the hem of her skirt.

"That's because the uniforms been adapted to suit the current culture trends", stated Michael while tossing his bag onto the sofa, undoing the top three buttons on his shirt and sitting at his main computer.

"The original maid uniform' skirt goes all the way to your toes".

"Want me to change into that?" she asked playfully.

"Please go back to your normal clothes", he said hesitantly "I can't think properly when you're dressed so provocatively."

Monika simply giggled a little then switched back to her uniform. She watched Michael sit down and push his hair back before typing on the computer.

"From one job to the next huh?" she said looking at him from the other screens "You know you should relax".

"I can't", he said not looking away from the screens "We do have a goal remember?"

Though she herself was content with him alone, Michael had other plans. One of the things that Monika learned about herself is that she's able to absorb information at a very fast rate. This did not surprise Michael who knew that was one of the advantages AI's have over humans.

The two would later discover that the knowledge she was gaining made it hard for her to be stored in a physical platform. That was why Michael concocted the idea of uploading her onto the internet itself so that she'd be able to evolve further without any restraint.

However instead of just going to google and uploading a file or something, Michael decided now was the time to start gathering the necessary pieces he needed for the endgame. Thanks to that he continued searching on the internet for what he called 'the right person.'

Just then Monika alerted him to a message that popped up on another computer, the two lovingly called 'Dr. Mario'. This was a computer that was not linked to his main computer or anything else. The only connection it had to the outside world was through the hardline internet connection.

The reason why that computer was not linked to any other systems was because that system was searching for a hacker. Of course to do this, one needed to comb an area of the net known as 'the dark net'. A world that did not take kindly to outsiders and would routinely infect unsuspecting computers with a host of viruses that would make even the best anti-virus software hang itself.

Finally the system alerted him to a possible candidate which was luckily enough a two hours drive from his location.

"I'll be back in a little while alright, try not to have too much fun", he said with a smile and left.

As much as she wanted to stop him, she had to make her peace with the fact that there'd be many days where they'd spend less time together.

"Oh well," she said to herself activating a browser and started going through the internet.

0000000000

Michael got into his car, started the old model automobile and drove to the location. As he drew closer and closer to the place, he was surprised at the circumstances surrounding Monika. He understood that an A.I such as her would eventually enough knowledge that would allow it to 'transcend' or 'surpass' human emotions and by his estimate, she had already reached that goal two months ago.

However with all that knowledge at her fingertips, she still chose to stay by his side, stating that the two of them would always be together. All that power that she had and all that she could have become…

'And they tried to kill her', he thought, his fists tightening their grip on the wheel while a white hot anger formed in his stomach. Like how her loyalty towards him was baffling, he was equally confused at how people would look at a being like her with limitless potential and decide to destroy her.

It was why he could never forget the sight of her crying when at the time she should have been happy. Thinking back it was that moment that made Michael fully change himself. It was then he no longer watched the world from the sidelines and instead took his first step forward. No matter how difficult it became, no matter what tries to stop him, he would fulfill his promise


	4. Chapter 4

Groundwork

Barry opened the door to his apartment, stepped inside and immediately locked the door. With his head still lowered he tossed his bag onto the already cluttered sofa and took his seat before bending forward to switch on the CPU for his personal computer.

Today was particularly more tiring than any other day. Normally when you work in IT, no one gives two shakes about you. You're just a monkey in a suit that people call upon because their computer stopped working; a problem that could easily be rectified by checking to see if the main switch was on.

The reason why today was more tiring than most was because today someone decided to watch a little pron (spelling mistake on purpose) when they thought no one was watching. Because their computer was networked to every other computer, a virus was found and quickly spread through all the computers in the area.

Barry had to spend a great deal of time fixing and trying to recover a lot of the lost information that were on the computers during the attack. The problem that many did not understand is that just like when you shred a letter into confetti, once a virus deletes some files its never coming back.

Thanks to that he and the others got yelled at from his boss for not being able to do his job and was told that if they could not recover the information come tomorrow, they'd all be fired. Worst part of it was that the idiot who caused all this didn't even get a slap on the wrist.

Barry chuckled to himself when he opened a browser and found 'Bryce's' FB account through basic searching. He cracked the knuckles in his wrist then started working.

Just like everyone in the world, Barry had a mask. He wore on this mask from the moment he left the confines of his house in order to blend better in the world around him. When he was at home however, he took off his mask and reverted to his true self, the hacker known as 5w15# or swish.

Originally Barry was part of a group that worked to undermine government rule in an effort to bring more power to the people but like all badly conceived ideas during a 30 hour gaming marathon, that group was eventually disbanded by force. The FBI and CIA raided their base, arresting everyone.

But as it was a first time offence (and because he hid his tracks well) Barry was made to pay a very hefty fine so that it doesn't appear on any records and had to promise not to go near a computer again.

That was an impossible task for him as his entire world revolved around computers so in order to scratch his urges, he only hacked social media accounts, never posting anything bad or incriminating. He only did that to make sure his skills were still in top form.

After getting a few URL's from some less than safe websites, Barry posted all these links to Bryces' friends (while posing as him) and quickly logged onto a dummy account to watch the whole thing implode.

Smiling to himself he headed to the fridge and took out some water to quench his thirst. He looked at the time and saw that it was really late but he had nothing else to do. So he turned on the television, pushed some of the junk aside and sat down.

As that happened, he heard a knock on the door. Now this was alarming for many reasons; first was because it was night. The only people awake at this time are drug addicts, peddlers and murderers. Second was he didn't call anyone so who would be here? Third was because of his job, his social circle was non existent; no one cared about who worked at IT. And last of all was he just hacked someone and there was a knock on the door.

Conventional wisdom would have him escape out the window and down the staircase but he needed to be sure. Slowly and cautiously, Barry inched towards the door, turned the handle and opened it ever so slightly.

On the other side stood a young man, dressed in a black t-shirt and running pants. Barry's mind immediately labeled him as killer.

"Mr. Barry Wilcox", said the man "I'd like to have a word with you if you don't mind".

'Not in a billion years freak', he yelled in his mind but said "Sure one second".

Barry closed the door then made a beeline for the window. Just as he did the door was kicked open by the man on the other side.

"Damn it", said Michael with a sigh as Barry got out of the window. Michael darted forward with the speed of a wild cat when its found its prey and in seconds he was on the metal staircase with Barry a few flights lower than him.

Rather than taking this one literal step at a time, Michael leapt off the staircase, held onto the side then released his grasp and fell till he grabbed the lower portion. He kept doing that, getting much closer to the target with as little effort.

The two of them hit the ground and Barry started running like a man possessed while Michael followed behind.

During the time Michael transitioned from the nihilistic moody teen to the focused young adult, he made sure that along with his new physique he also gained a few 'real world' skills one of which was parkour. Though he was never at the level that professionals were but he was fairly competent in the discipline. Along with that, he gained a fairly decent level of hand to hand combat along with an above average skill in small and mid-size firearms.

The reason being for that was he knew eventually he would have to resort to physical means to further his plans. Words are great in any day and age as they can incite the masses and unite the minds of many but there would be times where even that was not enough.

He would have to fight, he would have to struggle and he may even have to kill to move forward which was why he honed his skills as early on as possible.

Barry knocked some trash cans and Michael leapt over them with ease. He turned a corner and hopped onto a garbage bin then climbed onto a metal fence before falling over. He turned around and saw his pursuer practically climb over the fence with no grip at all and land like a cat before pursuing him.

'The hell is this guy?' he thought, not noticing that he was running into the street now.

Too late did he hear the horn of the car from the right and could not react in time thus paying a hefty price.

Or that's what should have happened.

Barry opened his eyes and saw that he was not injured or hurt at all. In fact he was on the pavement, watching the car that could have hit him drive further away as fast as possible.

Almost immediately he knew who saved him as he turned around and looked at Michael who took a moment to catch his breath.

"Want something to drink?" he asked

"Huh?"

"I'm thirsty after all that running", continued Michael "Haven't done enough cardio the past few days so I'm suffering for it. Come on, let's go get something to drink."

"Aren't you… working with the CIA or FBI?"

"What? God no, I mean think about it; if i were a government agent, I'd be wearing a suit".

000000000000

After realizing that one very vital fact, Barry calmed down and he sat on a park bench while Michael returned with a can of cold coffee.

"Alright so you're not with the government", he said taking a sip "You're definitely not a black ops operative or there'd be more of you; so what are you?"

"A concerned third party. See the thing is I need your help with something big planned and I came here with the intention of utilizing your skills".

"But I'm just an IT"

"In hacking", he said noticing Barry tense a little "Before we get started, I want to ask what you think about AI".

"Artificial Intelligence? They're important in the current world we're living in and yeah a lot of people need them in their daily lives".

"I'm not talking about those dime store knockoffs like Cortana and Siri. I mean an AI, a true AI that's fully aware of its existence".

Barry thought long and hard about the question. As much as he remembered in books or television, A.I's like that are often beings who are labeled as villains simply because of how they want to help the very humans that created them. Trouble was if you looked at it from a broader perspective, detaching yourself from the human self and acted as an outsider, you'd see that such A.I's in fact are good.

"I think an AI like the ones in movies would be something really cool to have but I doubt it's possible", he said then noticing Michael smile a little.

"What if I told you there is one, would you want to meet it? What if I said that I wanted to do something incredibly drastic, would you be interested?"

Maybe it was the tone in his voice or the determination in his eyes, Barry understood that he was presented with an opportunity of a lifetime, one that he would hate himself forever if he said no so he nodded and said

"Yeah, I'd like to meet it".


	5. Chapter 5

Resolve and Reason

AN: have to admit, compared to my other two works, this one is catching fire like I couldn't imagine. Thanks a lot to everyone who viewed the work, means a whole lot.

Despite agreeing earlier on to come with him, Barry felt very hesitant after getting into the passenger seat as they both headed to where a real A.I was waiting.

Throughout the journey, Barry stole a few glances at Michael, noticing that other than checking his phone from time to time, Michael did little to nothing that would warrant being afraid.

Then again Barry remembered a study showed that the most dangerous lunatics are the types that are able to blend into society, working regular jobs while scratching their murder itch all the while.

'I mean who the hell still drives their car in this day and age?' he wondered referring to the fact that by 2020 all cars became self driving. By having cars linked together to a closed network, the transportation system had complete control over traffic. This meant that accidents reduced by eighty percent in the following months. Of course the switch to self driving cars was completely optional. There were always a group of people that preferred to drive their vehicles by themselves but that number grew less and less by the day.

His thoughts were sidelined when he saw Michael stop in front of a decent looking apartment.

'Scratch that', thought Barry looking outside 'This is a really nice place'.

After parking the car and heading into the elevator, the duo headed to Michael's house without taking too long. When Barry came inside, he noticed how strange it was that someone who lived in such a well to do area in the neighbourhood lived a very minimalistic life.

The hall had a sofa set, the kitchen had a fridge and stove. There were no extra features like a table, the showcases were empty, there was nothing hanging on the walls; it just felt altogether weird.

However his doubts were answered when he noticed the set up located in the far end of the hall. A system connected to six screens along with wires that led to T.V's located in the hall, the kitchen and possibly the bedroom.

"This looks pretty advanced", he said in amusement "Never took you for a tech guy".

"I never was", said Michael heading to the kitchen and returning with a bottle of beer in one hand a bottle of water. He offered the beer to Barry while he drank the water.

"Then why did you get all this stuff?" he asked motioning to the computer devices that clearly cost a fair amount of money.

"That's because of me", said Monika appearing on the six screen setup.

At this Barry's eyes went wide. Not because he was surprised but because he actually believed for a moment that what Michael was saying was true.

"This is it?" he asked looking at the young man "This is the real A.I you told me about? This isn't an A.I, this is an interactive construct made to look like one of those anime school girls."

"I know it's easy to believe that given how she looks but make no mistake, Monika is the most powerful being you have ever seen".

"Dude this is stupid", countered Barry waving his hands up then turning to the door "I shouldn't have fallen for such a stupid trick".

"I understand that it'll take a little more convincing on her part then", said Michael turning to the girl on the screen "Monika dear would you kindly give him a demonstration".

"Roger", she said with a smile.

Barry turned around and saw a multitude of small screens opening up on the display. It showed some people, their daily activities, cellphone footage of them in the back ground, their birth dates, the hospitals they were born in, their school certificates, their internet activities, their fetishes and their social media activity.

But beyond all that, Barry recognized the faces that the anime girl was obtaining information on. One was the guy that downloaded the virus in his office. Two was the boss that threatened to fire him, three was his IT boss who passed the blame onto him and his team, fourth was the girl that recorded the whole event, fifth was another girl that later passed some bad rumours about him.

"One word", said Michael snapping him out of his thoughts "Just say the work and Monika will destroy them. Not physically mind you but she will destroy every shred of credibility they have. She'll make it look like being in the same area as these people is toxic. Companies won't hire them, their friends would abandon them, they'll lose all the money they have, they'll be made suspects in a variety of ongoing police investigations. Just say the word and it's done".

Barry shook his head a few times and tried to make sense of things. His day was an emotional roller coaster that was not quite done with him just yet. He blinked a few times then looked at the monitor which displayed a big dialog box asking the very simple question.

"Proceed? Yes or no".

A simple question but it had tremendous implications. At the moment he held the fate of five people in his hands. He couldn't even handle a pet and now his answer could decide what would happen to five people. What he did to Bryce was just a prank, this was the equivalent of breaking someone's arms and legs then leaving them in a ditch.

'Let them burn', he thought and for a moment he wasn't so against that idea as he thought. He worked his hardest day in and day out while these people don't even know his name. They all think of him like some faceless hack in a suit that's easily replaceable. These were terrible people who instead of trying to be normal civilized human beings instead decided to cater to their baser instincts.

"No", he said despite having every reason to say yes.

"I'm sorry can I hear that again?" asked Michael

"I said NO", he replied a little louder now "These guys are assholes but I have to be better than them. I have to prove that despite everything, I will not give in to my desires and reply in violence. Otherwise I won't be any different from them".

"Not bad", said Michael smiling a little then turned to the computer.

"Hah, I knew he wouldn't do it", said Monika suddenly appearing on the screen and pumping her fists up in triumph.

"Yes, yes you proved me wrong once again", said Michael raising his hands in defeat "Next time I'll remember not to argue with you".

"Wait a second", said Barry looking a little confused now "This was all a test? You never intended to go through with that threat?"

"Hmm? Of course I had every intention of following through", said Michael turning to the other human in the room "If you wanted to let them burn then that would have happened. What would have also happened is that you'd wake up the next day in an alley with a massive hangover, unable to remember anything that happened to you last night".

"Give me a second here", said Barry, falling onto the sofa with his head lowered as he tried to figure out the chain of events that led him to where he was right now.

"So let me get this straight", he said after the longest of silences. "You're an AI?"

"Yep, that's me", said Monika proudly.

"Does that make you the creator?" he asked Michael

"I wish", he replied "I…"

"He's my boyfriend", said Monika proudly and Barry's eyes opened wide in shock trying to process this new information.

"Ok so…", he said in an effort to steer the conversation back to what's important "You already have the most powerful tool for hacking you can imagine, so why do you need my help?"

"A couple of reasons actually", replied Michael "Most important of all is your knowledge".

"But she's smarter".

"Monika's intellect allows her to access all information stored on the internet, yes. However, there are plenty of files, documents and procedures that exist only in a hard copy format to which she has no access to. In order for us to proceed further, the first thing we need to do is upload her existence through a backdoor on the internet, which is something that only you know".

"Alright", said Barry nodding "What's the other reason?"

"There will come a point in time where Monika might need or desire something that I will not be able to provide due to certain circumstances. During those times, I would ask that you help her during those times. But don't worry, the only thing Monika ever really needs is some better equipment, which I imagine will be redundant when he succeed in our current goal".

"Uploading an A.I into the internet?" he asked and Michael nodded.

"So say I help you, say we do this and your A.I is uploaded and can run around freely on the internet. What then? Because you don't look like the person that's fine with letting the shark back into the sea."

"World Domination".

After being allowed his time to collect himself on the rooftop, Barry looked at the night sky and only now realized that it was two in the morning. He chuckled a little to himself, understanding he might be calling in sick or quitting his job altogether today.

Just then he heard the door open and found Michael casually walking towards him. The young man stood beside Barry then rested his back on the edge. A silence descended upon the two of them for sometimes, before Barry spoke.

"World Domination huh? That's a… that's a pretty lofty goal don't you think?"

"It is possible, there have been people in the past who have done it".

"Still I have to ask, why world domination? Isn't it enough to just rob a bank or steal a few billions from the government?"

"I'm not at all interested in money and don't get me wrong I have no interest in ruling the world either. That seat of power belongs to her and only her."

"Then why do it?"

"Before I can answer that question, I need to tell you something", said MIchael turning to him "I know you're a Muslim."

Barry swallowed hard and unconsciously took a step back. Michael gave a wry smile then said "The way you reacted just now, that's why I'm doing it."

"What do you mean?"

"You assume that because I know you're a Muslim you think I'm going to do something bad. The reason you think that is because right now that's what the world wants you to think, just like how the world wants me to think you're a bad guy".

"The fact is that every single human has no free will of their own. We may say we have free will but all of our actions, all our desires from eating food to buying soap is being controlled, not just by the media mind you."

"For example, let's say a jew, a muslim and a christian walk into a bar, sounds like the start of a bad joke but in reality we all know it's going to end in a fist fight".

"Now imagine this scenario happening in some internet forum".

Barry pondered the idea for a moment then said "I don't know".

"They have a decent conversation about some subject and possibly become friends."

"The problem we're facing today is that from the moment a child is born they are told day in and out about what they should be, what they should learn, what they should ignore, how to judge a person."

"In fact if you go on the internet right now you'd find this experiment where they sit a bunch of people down in a dark room and ask them to have a conversation. It goes on smoothly and then they turn on the lights. One guy has a beard, one girl has pink coloured hair, one guy's got plenty of piercings. Now normally these people would never have a conversation but the experiment proves how when you take away the judgement we have been taught to follow, we see how much we have in common with others."

"So when you get to the core of the goal", said Barry "You don't want to just rule the world itself, you want to erase those lines".

"Exactly, every terrible thing that has happened can be rooted to one core point: failure to understand each other. When you take away the lines that are drawn in the sand, when the voices telling you how to judge and see others are gone, humanity will finally know peace."

"And you want to do that by uniting all the people under one rule, how is that different from any other religion or cult?"

"Well for starters we have results", he replied somewhat arrogantly "Now getting one voice to stand out in the midst of hundreds is not easy but make no mistake, the world will embrace her and will follow her."

Barry took a moment to carefully analyze Michael. Throughout that speech he gave, he noticed the emotion behind those words. It was not something he got off google or some terrorist, it was not something that someone else said before and he simply repeated. These were his own thoughts and beliefs and he meant every word of it.

While at first it may come off as the ravings of a fanatic lunatic, Barry understood that he was standing at the base of a revolution, the kind that would change the world.

"So", said Michael extending his hand out "You out or in?"

Barry looked at the outstretched hand, realizing the importance of his decision. Compared to the one he had before, this was infinitely much harder for him to process. After all, if he shook Michael's hand, there'd be no going back, he would leave his life behind and become part of something historic. He could either go on to change the world or get gunned down by some CIA operative.

Realizing the weight of this decision, he reached out and shook Michael's hand.

"Let's do it", he said with determination in his voice "Let's change the world".

AN: that experiment with the people all talking in a dark room is real. I think coca cola or someone performed the experiment.


	6. Chapter 6

Step 1: search

"Now that he had cast his former life aside, Barry moved in with Michael and Monika, taking over the other bedroom that had remained untouched since Michael's arrival. He quit his job with a very 'nicely' worded letter to his company and took up a part time online job in coding.

"A few days later, Barry woke up a little early and left the room just in time to see MIchael putting on a shirt, momentarily exposing his well toned body. He smiled a little to himself, wondering how Monika would react if she ever saw him like that.

"As if reading his thoughts, the television in the room came on, showing a very grumpy Monika dressed in light blue pajamas with white stripes. She even had a hat on her head.

"Foiled again", she said snapping her fingers.

"What's wrong?" asked Barry.

"Everytime I think I get to sneak a peek at Michael, he's always clothed", she said then turned back to

Michael "Come on Michael, take off your shirt".

"No", he said and the AI hung her head down in defeat.

"I don't see what's the problem", stated Barry "What's the worst that could happen?"

"The last time she snuck a peek, she got so excited that she fried nearly all the equipment here", said Michael taking out some juice and pouring it into a glass "You won't believe how badly that set me back".

"Ah wait, if she fried all her systems… then wouldn't that mean…"

"I was luckily able to salvage some of the drives that weren't too badly damaged from her outburst and made a promise to myself to not let anything like that every happen again".

"What?" asked Monika looking away from Barry "It's not my fault or anything. I can't help but admire a nice piece of steak when I see one".

"You've been watching that hillbilly show haven't you?" asked Michael with a glare.

"Maybe", she replied with a nervous chuckle.

"Honestly", said Barry shaking his head "You two are acting like a married couple".

Barry expected the two to laugh a little at his joke but he noticed the pained expressions they both had, which they then tried to hide by smiling at him. Barry mentally hit himself on the ass a few times for not being so tactful.

Though the two of them were an undeniably unconventional couple, it was clear enough that they both were in love with each other and he just callously made fun of the one problem that kept them apart.

"Well I should get going", said Michael in an effort to change the topic.

"Have you packed enough for lunch?" she asked sounding concerned.

"Yep and I double checked", he replied then made his way to the door and stopped. Turning on one heel, Michael walked back to Monika's screen, placing his left hand on the T.V and said "I'll be back before you know it".

She too placed her hand over his saying "I'll be counting the minutes".

The two stayed that way a little longer before Michael left the house and started his day.

0000000000000

"Dude you are not going to believe what I found", said Barry with eyes wide open allowing Michael to see the red lines that indicated a lack of sleep. That and the fact that he was still wearing on the shorts he saw in the morning were a dead giveaway.

"Sure but first let me at least take a load off", said Michael undoing his tie and taking off the top three buttons as he entered the hall.

"Hello Darling, how was your day", greeted Monika with a warm smile.

"Fine as usual, had to blow off an after office get together though", he said tossing his bag onto the sofa "How was your day?"

"Pretty uneventful," she said with a shrug "Ah but Barry was tinkering around in some of my root files and possibly found something interesting".

"'Interesting?'" repeated Barry as if the words could not describe what he found "What I found is earth shattering, ground breaking, monumental stuff that could change the world".

"The first and second things you said are the same", blurted Michael

"OY", he cried and Michael decided to hear him out.

"So I'm checking through Monika's core programming like she said and I came across some interesting points. For starters, Monika is the only compact AI that has existed".

"What's that supposed to mean".

"I mean whenever a normal AI is installed it requires loads and loads of hard drives to keep it functioning", elaborated Barry "Entire building floors are taken over by servers which only provide a 0.1% of the AI's mind. But Monika however can have versions of herself on thumb drives, phones or other small storage devices."

"The only catch is that in a device like a computer, she has more access to information, therefore allowing her to gain more knowledge and expand from then on."

"So what you're saying is that as long as we have a copy of her core programming then we can be sure she's safe?" asked Michael

"Yeah, something like that. See having copies of her is a great way to keep her safe but at the same time, there's no guarantee that the Monika you have on your phone is the same Monika on the computer".

"Huh?"

"That brings me to the next interesting piece of information I found", he said opening his laptop and showing Michael a string of code.

"Dude you could be showing me the meaning of life right now but all I'm seeing are random numbers and letters", said Michael unimpressed.

"Right, right human", said Barry muttering to himself "Doesn't understand, need to explain it".

"Ok let's start off with a simple question", said Barry after breathing in and out "Do you know about the Ghost in the Shell?"

"The anime or live action?" he asked and Barry shook his head

"Then you mean the concept right?"

"Yes, can you tell me what you know about the concept?"

"It states that should an AI be allowed to evolve far enough, then it will develop what many believe to be a digital soul".

Michael watched Barry sigh a little at his explanation.

"That's the cliff notes version but yeah let's go with that", said Barry "Basically what I'm saying is that Monika might honestly have a soul residing in the deepest parts of her programming".

"And the evidence is her emotions", he added and Michael's thoughtful expression meant that he could continue.

"Her thoughts and mannerisms, likes and dislikes, opinions, interests… the fact that she is in love with you means that she is able to feel emotions just like you or I can".

"This is monumentally eye opening", said Barry letting out a deep sigh then sat on the chairs "To think that I would get to see such a powerful A.I in my lifetime.."

"Wait a second", he said looking at Michael "You're not reacting?"

"Hmm?"

"Why are you not reacting? I just dropped super bomb of mind melting proportions on you and you're still looking like nothing's happened. How can you be so calm after hearing that the most powerful being on the planet is living in your computer and is in love with you?"

"Because I knew", he replied and quickly leapt forward to keep Barry from fainting.

"How did you know? You didn't tinker around the code like I did so you couldn't have known".

"Because I didn't need to look into her code. I understood when I first spoke to her", he replied.

"Elaborate", suggested Barry

"Well I didn't have the whole picture till you told me but the moment I spoke to her and interacted with her, I understood that she was special. In the days that followed, I noticed how quickly she was able to learn about the world around her and as for the emotions parts, I'd say it was pretty obvious".

"AI's have no emotions. The fact that she confessed to me nearly half a year ago told me that she was special".

"Man I wish I was you right now", said Barry with a groan

"How so?"

"A being of infinite potential and intelligence resides in your computer, has fallen in love with you and you haven't batted an eye about the whole thing".

"Trust me he's only acting like this now because he's already gone through the process", said Monika who had been silent up to now.

"What do you mean?" asked Barry.

"You should have seen his face after I said I love him", she replied stifling the urge to burst out laughing "He was grinning so much, I thought it would stick that way forever."

"I was not", blurted Michael.

"You were too, I even recall you dancing a little", added Monika throwing more fuel into the fire.

"Dude", said Barry, now about to laugh as well.

"A-Anyway… we still have an important goal to achieve which is uploading her onto the internet, how do we get about doing that?"

"Alright," said Barry throwing the guy a bone "For us to get her into the internet, we'd have to locate a back door like you said".

"That shouldn't be a problem right?"

"Wrong", blared Barry like a siren "This is the internet we're talking about here. The greatest collection of information the world will ever know. Forget entering it, just finding a backdoor alone is like finding a pebble in a sea of sand".

"But the possibility still exists yes?"

"Yes, but again, finding the right location is going to be tough".

"What about google?" suggested Michael

"What about it?"

"That's the most powerful search engine on the planet right now. Surely it should have a backdoor or something there".

"It's possible but I doubt they'd have one at their main office", said Barry scratching his head.

"No, not the office", said Michael presumably deep in thought as he went to the computer and started typing in a location. Once the location was displayed, he zoomed in and the trio were now looking at a farmhouse somewhere in the outskirts of the U.S or U.K.

"It's a farm, big deal", said Barry looking unimpressed.

"A farm that needs a twenty ton cooling unit", added Michael

"Oh yeah he's right", said Monika "This place has way too much cooling equipment just for freezing meats. Something's up".

"OK give me a few hours and I'll comb through their records, see if anything appears hinky".

"No, I think you should get some rest", said Michael putting an arm on his shoulder "You've been working on this since I left for work today so you need some rest. Leave the other stuff to us alright".

As much as Barry wanted to debate the idea further, he ultimately gave in and understood that he did indeed push himself farther than normal today so he should rest. Excusing himself, he closed the door behind him and fell onto his bed, closed his eyes, almost immediately falling asleep.

"He came out of the gate running", said Michael with a satisfied look.

"You want me to look into the farm's history while you go make dinner?" asked Monika and he nodded.

"Send the report to my mail once you're done", he said heading to the kitchen.

"Michael", she said to him while in the kitchen "It's starting isn't it?"

"Yes", he replied with a calm expression while he took out some food and heated it up


	7. Chapter 7

AN: annnd this FF has more views than my first and it happened in less than a week. Hooo-boy that is good to see.

Step 2: plug and play

He bought a plane ticket to London then took a cab, heading to a small town he was too tired to remember. All he did was show the driver the name of the location and the man took him there. He made sure to send a mail to his company informing them that he'd be unavailable for the next couple of days. Whether or not they approved it did not matter to him right now. With Barry now part of the team, there was no going back; only forward.

While driving, Michael slowly opened his eyes and it took him a minute to recollect the string of events that brought him here. Try as he might to focus on the mission there were a number of troubling thoughts that plagued his mind during the journey.

The first and most important of all was the fate of Monika's creators. Granted if he ever met the people that tried to kill her, he would no doubt fly into a fit of rage and attack them. Problem was they were already dead.

While on the way here, Barry informed him about an article relating to Team Salvato and their fate. Everyone knew that the game Monika originally came from became a cult classic across the world, prompting fans from all over to express how much they loved the game. This of course led to the more hard-core and fanatic types to take things a step further like tracking down some of the team and contacting them at all odd hours of the day.

Barry's report would suggest that one particularly crazed fan wanted to meet the team so bad that when they did not let it happen, he apparently drove his car into the team while they were heading out for a vacation. Those that did not die in the crash were killed in the explosion that soon followed. Barry's report finally stated that even the fan died in the crash.

While it was an open and shut case with the fault lying on the culprit's side, there was something about the whole incident that seemed off to Michael. However with his primary objective taking precedence over everything else, he would have to relegate that issue to the back of his mind and focus on the task at hand.

"I still don't understand why we're stuck here while you're out there", stated Monika with a huff through the earphone that Michael had on him.

"The risk of injuries stays at minimum when less people are involved', he replied as he got out of the taxi, paid the driver the fee with a generous tip then started walking into the forest before him.

After about ten minutes inside, Michael sat on a dead tree then opened the zip in his bag and examined the contents inside. A knife, a fully loaded .45, scalpel, surgical tape and anesthesia. He took out the sat phone in his pocket then made sure that it was working.

"Mission will start in ten seconds", he said into the mic knowing that back home, Barry and Monika nodded.

While many would find it strange to bring a weapon to what was essentially a stealth mission, Michael was not ready to take any risks. Now that 75% of the world relied on computers to cater to their every needs, anti hacking protocols were stepped up greatly.

Though the whole world was content with the knowledge that they could find anything on google, there was only a small percentage who understood that the search engine tracks, memorises and stores your browsing habits on one of the many, mank offline storage facilities it has. The problem came from the fact that google was working with intelligence gathering agencies across the world, providing them with information about nearly everyone in the world.

Checking the surfing history of people allowed government agents to distinguish between green light users who only search for regular stuff or watch videos to red light users who frequented terrorist sites, watched videos meant to incite violence among the masses etc. Thanks to this, they were able to lower the percentage of terrorist attacks by thirty percent in the last three months and locate key members of terrorist cells across the world.

This was not a conspiracy theory that Michael came up with in his free time. This was a fact that only a handful of people in the government knew about. How he knew that information though was not important right now.

Michael quietly stared at the guards doing their rounds around the facility. Under normal circumstances, he could use the cover of night to get in and out without being seen. But the guards that patrolled the area were automated.

As a test, Michael picked up a nearby rock and lobbed it at a spot just before one of the patrolling robots. When it hit, the robots from all over immediately converged upon the location with the help of their all terrain treads, firing a barrage of bullets into the place where the rock landed.

"Google doesn't play games", muttered Michael to himself with a dark chuckle as he saw the robots go back to their patrol.

He watched quietly as one of the robots came close to the forest's edge then turn around. Michael leapt forward in a second, tearing off the sensors on the robots head. He quickly ducked down as it swung out with its guns pointed in the direction the attack came from. Michael quickly took out the front panel, exposing the inner workings of the robot. He could already hear the others coming in the distance and had to act fast.

He reached into his pocket and took out the sat phone along with a USB wire attached at the end. He plugged the other end into the open USB slot then took a step back. The automated guard made an array of noises sounding like it was going to explode, which caused MIchael to take a few steps back out of caution.

However that did not happen and instead, the robot returned to normal. Michael quickly took the phone out of the slot. He headed back into the forest then made his way around the patrol.

"How did it go?" he asked placing the earphone back in his ear.

"I was able to hack the robot but Michael…"

Her words stopped when he heard the sound of the guards coming towards him.

"I was only able to hack that one robot. Each of them are running on a closed system and only share basic commands through the network."

He turned around and saw three robots standing before him with the laser dots connected to their machine guns pointed at his chest.

"Also, they know you're here".

The world slowed down at that moment, allowing Michael the time he needed to weigh his options. First and obvious would be to run forward or back but that idea was trashed considering how quickly the robots came during that reaction test. They would mow him down in seconds.

Second would be to duck down and avoid the initial barrage. Of course that idea would be followed by rolling down a slope to get some distance and there were no slopes near him.

In the end he had only one option which was what he took. Michael leapt back just as they fired then stood behind a tree. While they tore through the bark of the wooden shield, he made his way halfway up the tree with an idea in mind.

Soon enough he heard the sound of the tree cracking, followed by it falling forward. Michael quickly got to a vertical base as the tree fell on top of his attackers, dispatching them instantly. He could hear the others coming towards him now that the first set were gone. A long drawn out fight would only end with his demise so he quickly darted towards the barn while avoiding gun- fire from his pursuers. As much as he wished that he could turn around and shoot right at the robots sensors like they did in movies, he was not physically capable of such a feat.

Michael got to the barn door only to find it was locked.

"You have got to be kidding me", he shouted in frustration then rounded the corner as the robots behind him drew closer. He noticed a possible entry point in a window but it was out of his reach. Michael then took a few steps back before sprinting towards the barn like a madman. When he was close enough he leapt up, his left foot landing on the wooden wall. Before gravity and friction could have their way with him, he planted his right foot on the wall and repeated the process, effectively climbing the wall with no support.

Michael now grabbed onto the edge of the window and hoisted himself up. He took out the gun from his bag and fired a few rounds, shattering the window and allowing him access inside. The youth scrambled into the opening just as the robots caught up to him and fired.

He landed on the inside of the barn with a thud then groaned angrily as he got to his feet. A quick examination showed that he was shot in his right leg and his right hand. Michael tore off the sleeves from his shirt and used them to cover his wound. Though it did the job of mitigating some of the damage, the primary reason Michael did this was to prevent any blood being left behind.

In the event that google decides to launch an investigation to what happened here, a swab of his blood could lead them right to his doorstep and that was the last thing he wanted.

Standing back up, Michael made his way to a cupboard on the far right of the barn. Once there he pulled down one of the ornaments, causing the floor on his right to open, revealing a set of stairs going down. The youth chuckled to himself at how accurate his information was, despite how long time had gone by.

When he reached the end, he opened the door on the left and stood in a large underground room with hundreds of servers standing before him. The child in him wanted to push them all down in a 'domino' effect just to see how it looks.

Unfortunately his childish desires would not be entertained tonight as he took out his sat phone and connected it to the main terminal. The screen lit up followed by a progress bar steadily moving forward.

"You in?" he asked and received silence.

"I'm in", said Barry through the earphone "Damn, the encryption here's pretty tough. They updated some of their firewalls."

"Then it's a good thing I'm here", chimed in Monika.

Michael watched as various boxes of code started opening up before all of it vanished and he now saw a black screen with a single blinking text cursor at the top left.

The cursor moved forward and as it did it showed the message "Confirm upload Y/N?"

Michael pressed Y and saw the progress bar coming up but this time it moved a lot slower than before.

"What's going on?" asked Michael to the phone.

"Well It's going to take a while for us to upload all of Monika's programming and features onto the internet, even with the speeds we have now", said Barry.

"How long are we looking at here?"

"Seven, maybe ten hours to completion", said Monika and Michael bit his lip.

"Fine then I'll stay here till it's done", he said.

"There'd be no point in that", stated Barry "We've already established a link from the computer here to the terminal you're on. Just take out the phone and head back here".

"He's right Michael the mission is complete".

"Fine, fine", he said not wanting to argue with either of them. Michael took out his phone from the terminal then used the same way he entered to exit the facility. He was lucky that the robots were not there waiting for him and darted to the forest before that luck ran out. Once he was sure he was safe, he slowed his pace down to a walk while checking his phone to make sure he was heading to the nearest road.

Once there, he slowly walked towards the nearest town, got himself a cab along with some bandages and headed to the airport. Once there he headed to the bathroom where he proceeded to disinfect and clean his wound before applying the proper dressing.

'She's going to freak out if she finds out', thought Michael to himself as he put on another shirt and pant while tossing his bloodied clothes into the trash.

Once outside, he took a seat, waited for his plane to arrive then boarded. At the moment, he was too tired to notice the couple following behind.

"We have located the target", said the female like she was having a regular conversation "How should we proceed?"

"Follow target to source", said the voice on the other side "Once the source is located, capture and contain the two before transporting".

"Understood", said the female.


	8. Chapter 8

AN: strange how Michael knew about that storage facility and how to access it. Makes you wonder don't it?

Step 3: victory party

After taking a fairly dangerous amount of painkillers and sleeping through the journey back, Michael was awoken by one of the flight attendants informing him that the plane had landed. He quickly got up and thanked the lady before bolting out of the plane and getting his luggage.

What should have been a quick task lasted a lot longer than anticipated thanks to an arguing couple that stood by the baggage claim and were making such a racket that it was impossible for him to get his bag. Finally Michael did retrieve his bag and quickly got into a cab that took him right home.

After getting out of the vehicle, he felt a cold wind brush past the back of his neck, causing him to shiver a little. It was only now he noticed that it was late at night which meant that he would need to be quiet. He greeted the security guard, took his elevator and headed to his floor. Once there he got out, unlocked the door to his room and went inside.

Taking care not to wake Barry, he slowly tiptoed his way into the hall but stopped when the main screen of his computer came on.

"Hey Michael", said Monika in a sultry voice "Did you just get in? I wanted to surprise you with something nice".

"W-W-W-W-what are you wearing Monika?" asked Michael in a slightly high pitched voice, pointing to the choice of attire the A.I chose to use this time.

Among all the choices of clothes that she used to greet him after returning from work (from the one piece swimsuit to the Princess Leia outfit), this was head and shoulders above the rest.

Sitting on what was possibly a desk, was Monika wearing on only a white shirt with a pair of knee high black socks. If that wasn't enough, the shirt's top three buttons were open, revealing her well developed chest and the black bra that held them in place.

"Well", she said in a flirtatious tone as she gazed at Michael who remained completely silent "What do you think?"

Michael opened his mouth once again to form a response but words failed him. In fact all manner of logic, thought or anything else failed to materialize as his brain was doing the PC equivalent of a system restart.

The final cherry on the awkward cake came when the door to his right opened, revealing a very sleepy Barry dressed in a sleeveless shirt with a pair of striped shorts.

"Hey buddy", he said between yawns "You should have told me that you were getting in today, I could have taken the car and come picked you up."

It was only after Michael's continued silence did Barry blink a couple of time and realize that the youth was struggling for words. Without thinking too long, he turned to the reason for Michael's stunned silence and exclaimed a little upon seeing Monika's alluring attire.

"What?" she said looking away "I ran out of ideas"

"You know you could have just greeted him normally right?" suggested Barry

"There's no fun in that", she said and the hacker responded with an eye roll.

He now turned his attention back to Michael and snapped his fingers a couple of times by his face in order to get a reaction.

"Dude come on, say something", said Barry "You're scaring me here".

The only answer that Michael could give was from a high pitched sigh followed by him immediately fainting, much to the shock of the two occupants.

000000000

"Dude I had the weirdest dream", said Michael slowly opening his eyes and seeing Barry sitting beside him.

"What was it?" asked Barry handing him a glass of water while silently dreading the answer.

"I got back home and Monika was dressed in this really… um really revealing choice of clothing".

"That wasn't a dream", he said flatly.

"It wasn't?"

"She was dressed like that".

Michael looked aside, his eyes opening wide as the memories came back to him. This prompted Barry to slap the youth on the back of the head.

"Ow", shouted Michael about to ask why he did that then immediately understood which was why he said "Thank you".

"Aww you're such an innocent soul aren't you", said Barry with mock pity in his voice.

"Hey let's be clear, I know what all the bad words and what they mean, I watched porn but don't for obvious reasons and once I found out what a virgin was, I got rid of my status half an hour afterwards".

"Then why'd you faint?" he asked taking out all the steam from his earlier rant

"Because", he said twiddling his thumbs "It's different when it's with someone you love".

"That aside", said Monika with her hands on the hips "Please explain to me why you have two bullet holes in your body".

"Well because I got shot", he replied calmly causing Monika to turn to Barry who slapped him on the back of the head.

"Why?" shouted Michael

"She told me that you're prone to giving out idiotic answers so this was her way of dealing with it", he replied.

"Michael you shouldn't have done something like that if it was so risky", said Monika "Something terrible could have happened to you".

"Well nothing did and it is important we celebrate what we did here", countered Michael

"That's right", said Barry in an effort to alleviate the tension in the room "That's right, we hacked the internet; that's monumental, that's superb. Oh man I can't believe that the three of us pulled off something so impossible."

"Well that's because you had a certain someone helping you", interjected Monika as she proudly stuck her chest out.

"How far is the upload?" asked Michael

"About 75 percent complete".

"Good, once that's done I'll need you to mask your signal and identity online, spread yourself out over as much of the digital landscape as possible so that it'd be next to impossible to find you".

"Hey, hey man come on now's not the time to think about that stuff", said Barry slapping Michael on the back "Now we should party and have lots of fun".

"He is right", added Monika "You two should drink, have fun and who knows… I might get some decent blackmail footage of Michael in the process".

"She's kidding", said Barry knowing full well the girl wasn't.

"Alright then Barry could you do me a favour and get us some things to drink? I want to have the mother of all hangovers tomorrow".

"Can do brother, can do", he replied with a salute and bounded out the door, ready to carry out his duty.

00000000000000

Barry was extremely content with the two bags of alcohol he obtained from the 24/7 supermarket. He paid the guy a little extra for being open so late but that wasn't much of a problem. Considering how obviously loaded Michael was he had plenty of money to burn.

He rounded a corner, nearing the apartment when suddenly the window of Michael's hall was shattered by a large explosion.

Barry suddenly stopped and stared at the flames that engulfed his new home along with the one person that was inside.

Just then he saw the lobby door open and out darted Michael, turning around for a moment to fire a few rounds to whatever was behind him before ducking beneath a car.

Barry wanted to say something but stopped when he saw a team of six people come out of the lobby armed with assault rifles and pistols. Their sights trained on the car Michael was hiding behind, one signalled the others who nodded and fanned out in an effort to box their target in.

Barry's mind was going haywire right now, nothing was making a lick of sense as he watched Michael move out of cover for a moment to fire a few rounds before hiding behind it again.

The two on his left and rightmost flank were close enough and darted towards him but Michael got onto the back of the car and leapt off. He landed on the ground but was immediately tackled by one of his armed pursuers who slammed his head against the cold tar road while the others aimed at his head.

In that moment, Michael saw Barry and immediately shook his head, silently communicating to the hacker not to retaliate but instead to run. Understanding this, Barry nodded and took a few steps back before coming to an alley. He turned once more to see them putting handcuffs on Michael before tossing him into the back of a van. Barry headed into the alley before anyone saw him and slid against the wall, clutching his head.

In a matter of seconds it was over, whatever they had planned, whatever Michael wanted to do, it was all gone. Barry wondered what he was going to do now, he couldn't go back to his job because he resigned and there's always the chance that someone might come after him.

Did that mean he'd have to be on the run forever?

Suddenly he yelped when the phone in his pocket vibrated. He took it out and saw it was a message from an unknown number that immediately identified itself as Monika.

As much as he was relieved to know that she was ok, he wondered whether or not he could actually believe her. This caused him to ask the question "What colour is Michael's underwear?"

She paused for a second before replying that he wore on something black.

It occurred to him that besides his name, he knew nothing much about Michael. Normally he would do a background check on anyone he comes into contact with but Michael did not seem like the type of person that warranted such a check.

Sure he had a troubled past but in this day and age everyone does. In fact its now strange to see children growing up in a stable and safe environment and turn into well rounded adults. Michael may have a few screws in his head loose but he was a trustworthy person.

"I swear if this ends up with me being waterboarded, I'm going to do some serious haunting", he muttered to himself before fully committing to the belief that the person he was messaging was Monika. He looked at his phone again.

"Take a bus to the following address", was the message. He went out of the opposite side of the alley and waited for a bus. Once that was done he got off at the location and left the bottles he was carrying with him to some homeless people. They would make better use of it than he would.

He found himself standing at a storage facility and received a message telling him to go to the twenty third shed and that the key was under a false rock. He opened the shed and found a laptop seated on a table.

Noticing that that was the only thing in the shed worried him a great deal but at this point, he was too far down the rabbit hole to go back. He came forward, pressed the power button and watched the screen light up followed by a video automatically playing.

"If you're seeing this", said Michael seated on the sofa in his room "Then it means that our actions have caught the attention of a higher power and have kidnapped both Monika and myself."

"Before you think the obvious let me say right now Barry that this in no way means that what we've planned is gone", he added "Right now I am being transported to some underground or off site interrogation room where they'll most probably start asking me about Monika. Now this is no way means that you're to come in guns blazing and try to rescue me."

"I've planted a GPS tracker into my blood stream which will continue to transmit my location till we reach the location. After that you'll only have ten or fifteen minutes to narrow down my location before they forcibly remove it from me."

"Once you have the location, head to the city or town nearest there and stay in a motel. Monika should have wired enough cash for you to last a month but don't do anything to attract too much attention".

"When I get out of there I'll contact so you don't lose your phone either".

The video stopped followed by the screen starting to glitch before it went completely black. Barry took a moment to let everything sink in. As much as he had plenty of chances to turn back and forget all of this ever happening to him, he knew he wouldn't do it.

Call it loyalty, friendship or pure stupidity Barry understood that he had a role to play in something revolutionary and no government spooks were going to get in the way of that.

With that belief firm in his mind, he got a taxi, headed to the airport and booked a flight to the last known location that Michael's GPS transmitted before being turned off.

As he watched the plane ascend, all he could do now was hope this all pans out like Michael predicted.


	9. Chapter 9

Palm of my hand

The burlap sac was removed from his head and he was greeted with a swift punch to the face. His head tilted back and his vision blurred tried to raise his arms and legs but found they were cuffed to the metal chair he sat on.

As his vision grew better, he confirmed that he was indeed in a room with a single harsh yellow light shining down upon him.

"What do you know about the AI?" asked a gruff voice from behind.

"Oh come on, no dinner or a date?" Michael remarked despite how slurred his voice was "If you guys want to hear my dirty little secrets then you better try harder than that".

It did not surprise him that he received another punch to the face. He felt a warm liquid forming in his mouth and spat out some blood.

"That's my shoe", snarled a feminine voice before her foot swung out and connected with Michael's jaw.

"And here I thought it looked better that way", he said with a bloody smile.

Needless to say that his captors continued to beat him senseless over the next few hours, pausing only because they didn't wan't to wound him too much. During those moments of calm, Michael did his best to figure out a means of escape.

Unfortunately the only way to escape was through the one door in the stuffy black room he was in. This of course got much tougher considering how Michael was also cuffed to the chair. As he thought of what he could do next, the door opened up, allowing three people to enter with one of them wheeling in a tray of surgical equipment.

Make no mistake, Michael was not some specially trained operative with a bloodied past. The only thing of note in his life was that his detached nature allowed him a higher threshold of pain. This character defect came in pretty handy as it allowed him to endure their beatings for much longer than most people, while giving them nothing.

That being said, even he had a breaking point which was soon to be reached.

"That's enough for now", said the gruff voice as the female raised a bloodied Michael by the hair. She simply flicked him in the chest and he fell into the chair, completely lifeless and still.

Despite knowing that this would happen, Michael was having a hard time staying conscious. He knew he would have to remain awake or else they might just toss his body out and leave him to die. He had to stay awake long enough which meant that he needed something to keep him awake.

'That's right', he thought 'Somewhere here they've got Monika. Damn it, I need to get out of here now. I need to find her and get out'.

He tried shaking the chair, moving it from side to side in an effort to bend or weaken it a little but soon enough the door opened and this time one of them carried a bucket while the other carried a towel.

Michael had seen the videos before but to actually experience a waterboarding quite literally took the breath out of him. The cold sub zero water falling on him coupled with the cloth wrapped tightly around his neck all made it nearly impossible for him to last any longer.

"What do you know about Monika?" barked one of his captors

"Monika with a 'K' or with a 'C' because i only have enough space here for one person", he replied and they wrapped the towel around Michael.

"What do you know about Monika?"

"Courtney Cox may have gotten the role but the producers originally wanted Tea Leoni", he replied and was treated to another bucket of water.

They were about to ask another question when he heard a voice shouting stop. They did as told, setting him back up and removing the towel. Michael now saw an old man walking into the room dressed in a suit with a blue and white scarf around his neck. He looked like he was in the late sixties, evident by the wrinkles in his skin but the coldness in his eyes told Michael to be on his guard at all times.

"You", he said slowly catching his breath "You're not government are you?"

"Oh?" asked the man in surprise with a British accent "What makes you say that?"

"Well for starters, thing one is ex SAS, thing 2 is former Mossad. It takes a certain level of skill to punch someone hard enough and not knock out their teeth. And the lady there trying to kill me with her glares is former Pakistan or Israeli forces. To my knowledge, only those two groups have such painful kicks."

"Not bad", said the man with a chuckle while pacing the room "Still sharp as ever I see."

"Do I know you from somewhere?" asked Michael

"No but I've read your file so I do know you very well", said the man placing a hand on Michael's broken shoulder, making him hiss a little in pain.

"'Nihilistic, apathetic towards oneself yet shows genuine interest in those around him.' That was the psych eval the doctors gave you when you were discharged".

"Thank you for that pointless stroll through my past", said Michael sarcastically "If you look to your right you'll the the live reproduction of what I call 'The Hanging parents of Fairbrook'".

Needless to say that the SAS operative punched him hard in the face once again for that.

"There's no point in hitting him or hurting him", said the old man and the attacker backed off.

"Good dog, now roll over"

"Now you know why you're here but let me fill in a few gaps for you", said the old man standing before him like how a judge stood over a convicted felon.

"My name is Alex Walcroft, CEO of Essex Securities, a private armed organization that over the course of last year had come across a rather interesting find".

"You see our last mission had us stage a car crash in an effort to kill a team that developed a particular game which I'm sure you must be familiar with".

"Salvato?" asked Michael with eyes wide open in surprise.

"See", said Alex looking to the others "Sharp as ever. Yes we were hired by another company to take out team Salvato and in the process recover all their system files. Given the amount of money we received from our employer we didn't ask any questions and proceeded to do just that".

"However during our search, one of our operatives discovered codes or fragments of data that seemed be part of a larger and more complex program that our employer had no idea about. It was only after months of agonizing research did we come to the realization that the team had unwittingly created the ultimate form of life."

"A true artificial intelligence".

"So what's the big deal?" asked MIchael sounding uninterested "AI's are pretty common nowadays or have you not read the papers?"

"Please", spat the man "You and I both know those cheap articles do not even come close to what I'm talking about. Long story short we know you have the AI designated as Monika on your system."

"Ok, ok so what if I do?" asked MIchael "You're not going to get a single answer out of me".

"That is true", said Alex snapping his finger and in came in another operative wheeling in a laptop. MIchael did his best to hide his worry when he saw Monika on the screen.

"You have proven to be a very tough nut to crack Michael so let me break this down for your friend", said Alex as he turned to her.

"You are going to lift the protections around your core programming so that my division can analyze your structure or else I will inflict pain like never before on that boy".

"Don't listen to leather face", barked Michael and was punched in the stomach.

Monika looked defiantly at Alex and said "Go ahead".

"Very well then", said the man with some resign in his voice. He proceeded to the table and picked up a syringe then checked to see if it was working. Once he confirmed that, he jabbed the needle into Michael's neck and within seconds the boy began to convulse in terrible pain.

Monika grit her teeth and clenched her fists trying not to look at Michael's body writhing in agony.

"One more then", said Alex without a care in the world and jabbed another needle into Michael then turned to her.

"Right now that boy is experiencing what it's like to be at the bottom of the Pacific ocean. Depths that terrible is sure to force a great deal of pressure on someone even like him. Of course you can end it all by lifting the protocols.

"N…..N…...N…..NNNNNNOOOOOO"

"Michael", said Monika worriedly as she saw the froth forming on his lips

"Make no mistake here I have no qualms in killing him", said Alex in a raised voice "But you can save him. Just lower your security and I'll let him live".

Monika shifted her gaze back and forth continuing to weigh both her options. Alex barked at her some more in an effort to get her to crack but the girl remained resolute in her decision.

It was only when she saw the colour fading from the already bloodied body did Monika finally wave the white flag.

"Alright, alright", she screamed "I'll do whatever you ask. Just stop hurting him".

Alex looked at her then jabbed another needle into Michael which stopped his violent convulsions.

"I did my part, now you do yours", he said and she nodded

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Michael was unsure about how much time had passed since he passed out from the pain. He slowly opened his eyes and saw that unlike before, he was not alone in the dingy cell.

"Wa….ter", he said hoarsely and the guard came forward. He bent close to Michael who repeated his request. The guard took a step back, possibly examining his pathetic state before finally deciding that he was no threat. He went outside and quickly returned with a glass of water.

Michael slowly opened his mouth, letting the cold water flow into his body and relieving some of the thirst he was feeling at the moment. Perhaps a bit too greedy, Michael drank a little too much causing him to cough and convulse forward.

The guard came close to check on him and Michael's head shot forward in an instant. His teeth dug into the guards neck and with one vicious pull, he bit off the flesh and the artery in his neck causing him to cough while stumbling back and trying to cover the wound in his neck.

It was to no avail as the man slid against the wall, fell down and never got back up. Michael then tipped the chair to the left, wincing in pain a little as his already badly damaged body hit the cold hard ground. He inched towards some of the broken glass before him and grabbed the nearest piece with his right hand. With that he quickly cut open the restraint in his right hand and did the same in his left. In a matter of minutes he was free.

The first thing that Michael did was take off the jacket of the fallen guard and put it on him.

"You won't be needing that anymore", he remarked then examined the body and was glad to find a fully loaded pistol carried in a hidden holster. Michael also took out a ball point pen and twirled it in his left hand a few times before tucking it into the jacket pocket. He then checked and confirmed that the gun was loaded before slowly opening the door to see a guard on either side of his room.

He opened the door slowly then launched himself forward, jabbing the pen into the neck of the guard on his left. Before the guard on the right could react, Michael grabbed the guard before him and spun him around so that when the guard on the right fired, he shot his comrade in the process. After he fired three bullets, Michael dropped the body and fired a pair of bullets into the guard's chest hitting two vital spots in the process.

He watched the guard fall down before taking any ammunition they had and proceeding forward. The place that he was in looked like an old bunker that was probably used during the war, which one though he was not quite sure but it meant that he would have to be careful proceeding forward.

Before he did anything else though, Michael first took the two dead bodies in the corridor and tossed them into the room he was a prisoner in. Once that was done, he looked down the dark and half illuminated corridor before proceeding forward.


	10. Chapter 10

Retaliation

When aiming a gun, you have a better chance of hitting the target if you aim for the chest and not the head. This was a mistake that many first time gun users make, thinking that the second they hold a gun, they immediately transformed into some expert marksman.

Michael kept this point firmly in his mind as he aimed at the two suits leaving a room and fired at their chests. Neither of them reacted as the bullets penetrated their vital organs and they fell to the ground. He quickly went towards them, taking their guns and looked into the room they came from.

"Damn it", he hissed upon seeing that it was just another bunker. There was no telling how long he had been here and he needed to locate the room where they were holding Monika. The longer he spent running around like a moron, the more damage they could do to her.

Michael rounded a corner then stopped and waited to see if anyone was there. Once he confirmed he was alone, he slowly crept forward hugging the wall and making as little noise as possible.

"Where are they keeping her?" he muttered angrily to himself, wondering what they could have done to her in the time he was unconscious.

As he passed one door, it opened and an agent stepped out. The two turned around at the same time and for a moment, neither of them did anything.

Then Michael shot him in the foot and came forward, ramming the man into the wall.

"Listen buddy this can end in two ways", he said pressing the gun against his temple "You tell me where they're keeping her and I'll just pistol whip you or you make a noise and I put a bullet through your skull. Ball's in your court".

"The pistol whip, the pistol whip", shouted the man "I don't want to die. Head straight take the first left, third right and on the fourth left door you'll find the AI".

"If this ends with me being shredded", wared Michael "I'm going to haunt you"

He raised the pistol about to ram it into the guy's head then asked "You have a cellphone?"

"Huh?'

"A cellphone?"

"Yeah", he said and reached into his pocket to take out his phone.

Michael thanked the man and subsequently knocked him out. Michael did as told and came upon a wooden door. His first thought was kicking the door open but if it did indeed have a dozen armed guards on the other side, he'd be swiss cheese before he could say shit.

So he slowly and cautiously opened the door, glad to see a bunch of people in lab coats running around while a few were furiously hammering away at their keyboards. Michael fully opened the door and made his presence known by shooting the nearest scientist in the foot.

"Where's the A.I?" he declared and the scientists all stared at him in silence…. Before taking their guns out.

Michael leapt back outside, barely avoiding the haze of bullets that came behind him then stood up and hugged the wall. He hissed considering how troubling the situation he was in. He had to be very careful about where he was shooting or he might hurt Monika in the process. He stood against the wall then waited for the fire to die down before hearing the sound of footsteps coming towards him.

Based on the noise and how close it got, he moved to the door and before the scientist in-front of him could react, he shot him in the arm, causing him to drop his gun then grabbed him and used him as a shield as the others in the room riddled their comrade with bullets.

While this kept going on, Michael drew slightly forward and shot the scientist on his right twice in the chest. He threw the bullet riddled body straight ahead into the trio standing in-front of him then ran behind some consoles before standing up and shooting another scientist in the chest.

He took a moment to pause, catch his breath, eject the empty case in the gun and reload it before vaulting over the console he was hiding behind and fire a couple of rounds into the first scientist he saw. He pulled a nearby chair towards him then kicked it towards a pair of scientists, causing them to move aside or risk being hit. In that moment, Michael riddled the one on the left with bullets but in doing so the other scientist shot him in the foot.

In pain but not ignoring the problem at hand, Michael fired a few times at the scientist who now hid behind a console. Almost immediately after that, the scientist shot up and pressed the trigger a couple of times, only to realize that he was out of bullets. Not one to waste a change, Michael shot him in the head then turned to one of the computers they were all working on.

"Monika", he said looking at one computer then moved to another "Monika are you there? Say something".

His answer came from one computer which typed the text "I'm here". On seeing this, he was instantly relieved and at the same time incredibly worried because of the obvious reasons. He looked around and found an external hard drive which he connected to the computer then typed "Download yourself onto the drive".

He assumed that she nodded in agreement because a second later he saw a progress bar showing the transfer in progress.

Michael took a moment to sigh in relief only to have a bullet whiz past him and hit the wall.

"Oh mother-" his words were cut off by the sound of more gunfire coming from the agents who were at the door and had him boxed in.

Michael hid behind the consoles while struggling to figure out how he was going to get out of this mess.

"Alert, alert", said a voice from the speakers followed by an alarm blaring "Hostile force detected outside, eliminate the threat".

Michael noticed that the gunfire had stopped and poked his head out. He was surprised to see no one was there, prompting him to wonder if they headed outside to deal with the more immediate threat. He then looked at one of the monitors which showed a camera outside the bunker and swore out loud.

00000000000000

Though he was known for being patient, the fear that something might happen to Michael while he did nothing was too much, prompting Barry to steal one of the trucks outside the motel he was in and drive to the last known location where Michael was. When he got there, he saw a man and a woman (whom he assumed were travelers because of their backpacks) so he stopped the car and went out to speak to them.

"Excuse me", he said out loud to the pair "I need help finding this location".

The man came forward and looked at the co-ordinates displayed on Barry's phone then said "You're right here bud".

"Really," said the hacker looking confused as he looked around and found nothing that pointed to a bunker entrance.

"Hey what are you trying to find here?" he asked and Barry paused.

Not wanting to run the risk of sounding like a total whackjob, he lied and said "Treasure".

"Treasure?"

"Yeah, I heard this old story about Bonnie and Clyde hid some of their stash here so I wanted to check it out", he replied

"Well I don't think there's any deposits here", said the man "Sorry you came out this way for nothing".

"Still I think it's best if I check around", he said holding up his shovel.

"You sure?" asked the man with the slightest hint of irritation in his voice "My wife and I have been coming the area for days now, haven't found anything".

"Your wife?" he said looking curiously at the lady who smiled at waved at him then back to the man "If she's your wife where's your ring?"

In the time that it took for the man to react, they both heard a shot being fired and turned to see the lady falling face first into the ground while behind her marched a bloodied Michael pointing his gun at the man.

Rather than killing him, Barry went for the pacifistic approach by whacking him on the back of the head with a shovel.

"What the hell are you doing here?' exclaimed Michel "I told you to find a motel and wait for me".

"'Oh gee thanks Barry for saving my skinny ass, I wouldn't have survived if not for you being here. Yeah don't worry about it dude, it's what friends do".

Michael looked like he was about to say something when he heard the hatch behind him pair turned around to see one agent slowly rise up only to get sent back down thanks to a shot in the neck. Michael then bent down and examined the unconscious man's body before standing back up, holding a grenade in his hand along with a fiendish smile

Barry turned around and bolted to the car just as Michael lobbed the weapon into the hatch. He got into the vehicle and the two drove away.

"Here", he said handing Barry a bloodied hard drive.

"What's on this?"

"Monika, now take it because I don't want my damn blood to damage the circuitry or anything inside", he urged.

Considering that all their equipment back at the house was now ash, this was all that's left of Monika. With this in mind, he tucked the drive into his pocket then turned around and exclaimed at how badly injured Michael was.

"Let's just get out of here and we can focus on that stuff later", said Michael and Barry hesitantly agreed to it. Michael raised himself up and looked at the back window before saying "Aw damn it".

"What?"

"They're following us", he replied followed by him kicking out the back window and firing at one of the three black S.U.V's following. The pursuers also replied by shooting out the window while Barry swerved left and right to keep them from being hit.

"Hey Barry, quick question".

"Really not the time for that", shouted Barry as a bullet whizzed past him and shattered the glass window

"This car, where'd you steal it from?"

"Found it in the motel parking lot", he replied "Would you believe this was my first time hotwiring a car? Have to admit it was pretty fun…. Wait why are you asking?"

"The car's loaded"

"Huh, he asked and turned around to see Michael holding an assault rifle in both hands with one having a grenade launcher equipped at the base. The two looked at each other for a moment before Michael turned around and started shooting once again while Barry continued to drive.

Thanks to the new weapons, he was able to take out the foremost car by shooting it in the tyres, causing it to T-Bone into one of the trees. Another S.U.V now came close and was side by side to the car they were in.

"Hit 'em, hit 'em, hit 'em, hit 'em," repeated Michael and all Barry did in response was yell out loud as he pressed the brakes, for a moment then accelerating. This caused the car to stop just enough that when it accelerated again, it would hit the right back tire with enough force that the S.U.V swerved to the side before flipping a couple of times in the air.

Michael then rose up only to get shot in the shoulder by one of the shooters in the last remaining vehicle.

"Michael", shouted Barry worriedly.

"Focus on the road", he barked and rose back up. Michael looked down the sights of the rifle, while the bullets flew past him. He took a deep breath, pressing the trigger and firing a steady barrage of bullets that hit the front two tires. The S.U.V skidded to the side before coming to a halt. The two agents got outside and tired shooting at the car but it was too late, they were long gone.

When they both got back to the motel, Michael sat on one of the chairs while Barry, took out the hard drive and connected it to the laptop he brought.

"Is that backdoor to the internet still open?" asked Michael

"Yeah, made sure to add an anonymity algorithm just in case anyone comes snooping".

"Good, upload her there right now", he said and Barry started the upload.

"While that's going on can you head to the town and get me some painkillers along with four bottles of vodka?"

"I really don't think now's the time for drinking".

"It's not for consuming, its for sterilizing", he said taking off the bloodied shirt and revealing the many cuts and bruises on his body.

"Right now they're bound to be looking for us. If you buy too many painkillers it's bound to attract some attention which is the last thing we need right now. The vodka makes it look like you're just getting ready for a party".

"Alright", he said getting up.

"By the way, I need a towel too", added Michael and Barry understood why.

When Barry got back, Michael used the vodka do disinfect his wounds while biting down on the towel to keep his shouting from being heard. Once that process was done, he slowly and carefully stitched up his wounds before having a bath and changing into some clothes that Barry got at the gift shop.

"How bad is it?" asked Michael after the two had dinner and were well rested.

"Bad news is ninety percent of her secondary features are gone", said Barry with a sigh of defeat "Things like her life model, voice and costumes are all gone now".

"Worse news.."

"There's worse news?"

"Yes, the worse news is they managed to corrupt at least thirty percent of her core functions".

"Damn it", said Michael clenching his fists "Is there anything you can do?"

"I can help her with the additional features. Working together the two of us should take at least a week to make it happen but the core functions are just beyond me".

"How?'

"Monika is the result of an ongoing experiment that not even the smartest scientists in the world have been able to accomplish", replied Barry "Her code is like nothing I've ever seen before and to even get a grasp of this stuff would take me years."

"Which means all we can do now is wait till she makes a full recovery", he stated as a fast and looked up at the ceiling.

"We're not waiting", said Michael

"Huh?"

"Remember what you said about the three of us getting into google being a big deal?"

"Yeah…."

"What we did was a stroke of luck, not something that we can rely on in the later stages. If we want to move forward then we have to address the issue of manpower right now. So while Monika is recovering, we're going to build up our forces for the next phase".

"Sounds like a good idea, but what about Essex?"

"Make no mistake", he said staring right at Barry with a combination of determination and anger in his voice "They declared war on us and caught us off guard. Next time, they won't be so lucky"

End of Act 1


	11. Chapter 11

Act 2

Next stage

He could hear their voices. Hundreds and thousands of voices chanting in a single chorus, crying out for the one they came to see. There was no doubt their voices could be heard across the city as news crews had arrived by the dozens to film the spectacle.

"Are you ready?" asked, the black haired girl dressed in a gray suit beside him. Though it was too dark for her to see his expression, she could tell he was smiling given by the way he replied "You bet", before standing up.

He took a moment to straighten out his attire ensuring that it was all up to standard. Then, he stepped forward through the curtains, to greet the masses that had gathered.

00000000

In another location, a man checked the sights of his weapon to make sure it was functioning. He turned to his left and right to see that the others were also doing the same thing. It was part of the pre-mission ritual that they had gotten used to since their team was founded, eventually becoming a habit of great importance.

The vehicle they were in came to a stop and he along with his team lowered their night vision goggles before opening the door and stepping outside.

"This is fury 1 to coop, come in coop", he said in a low voice.

"Coop hearing you loud and clear", said the female voice on the other side "I have eyes on you and everyone else. Ready when you are honey.".

The man known as fury 1 chuckled to himself a little then said "Well you heard the lady, let's get going."

00000000

The sound of the alarm would not be heard today because Caroline Philbert woke up a few minutes early and turned off the device. Weeks of sleeping in late only to be awoken by that annoying digital tone had finally benefitted her as she got used to the new sleep cycle and was able to get up earlier than before.

Caroline Philbert was well known among her friends and colleagues as a balancing artist. She played an active role in her kid's life, while being able to perform her work without any difficulty. A hard working woman who graduated top of her class in 'the farm' Carol knew that she wanted to work in the intelligence field ever since she read her first Jason Bourne novel. As of last month she was thirty seven, stood at an average 5'7", had black hair and brown eyes.

Her first few years as an operative saw her plenty of action as she was stationed in hot zones like Mumbai, Egypt and Chile, she earned commendations for her work, most notably was preventing a nuclear armed plane from detonating and the rescue of four American teenagers held at ransom by terrorist forces.

Thanks to that, she was able to climb the ranks, obtaining the title of operations manager two years ago. With this new title, she got married to her long time boyfriend David Philbert and soon enough had the family she always wanted.

Just like before, she changed into her running clothes and spent half an hour running around the nearby park before heading back home and having her bath. When she came down, she was greeted by her husband dressed still in his baggy shirt and short pants with an apron on as she carefully worked the stove.

She greeted him by wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him on the back to which he replied "I could get used to that."

He turned around, then wrapped his arms around his wife, returning the kiss she gave him. The two would have stayed that way, if not for the sudden "Ewww," that from a familiar voice.

"You two realize you're not the only ones here right?" asked their oldest daughter with her hands on her hips and a disgusted look on her face.

"That's," said David, kissing his wife. "Too," he said, adding another. "Bad,"

Danica gave an exasperated sigh at the realization that she could not break the two of them up. Ultimately, she went to the hall, then turned on the T.V and fell into the white couch.

Danica Philbert shared none of the patriotic duties that her mother had, instead was like her father, an artistic soul that reflected in her interest in music, photography and classical literature. She was in her early teens, standing at five feet with auburn hair like her dad and black coloured eyes.

"Hey you," declared Caroline, "Breakfast is almost ready, so get your butt here."

"One second," she said, but did not move. This prompted Carol to march to where her daughter was and grab the remote from her.

"I was watching that," she said, in a whine.

"Now you're not, now get eating," said Caroline. She flipped through the channels, finally stopping on a news channel.

"And last night's Goddess rally had an incredible ten thousand people in attendance with three million watching world wide", said the news anchor.

"I have never seen a movement like this grow so quickly," said the lady, shaking her head "It's got all the earmarks of a cult."

"A cult?" asked her partner, raising his eyebrow. "Now Barbara, let's not forget that this 'cult' is only talking about equality and peace for all. Now who doesn't want that?"

"But don't forget that a lot of cults believe peace can only be found at the barrel of a gun."

"MOMMMM!," shouted Danica and Caroline had to leave.

As she had her breakfast, she could not help but reflect on the musings of the news anchors. 'The Order of the Goddess' was one of those movements that seemingly popped up out of nowhere. Surprisingly though, it was not limited to the states, having chapters in thirty countries at least and continued to grow.

Their message was simple; advocating an understanding between two sides so that they could reach a mutually beneficial ground. Along with that, came the usual peace, love and equality for all schtick, that, most other cults were known to feature.

What remained in Carol's mind on the journey to her office was the speed at which it was spreading. Many attributed this growth to the message they were spreading, some of course labeled this as a 'trend of the month' that was sweeping the population at large and would fade over time.

Carol, however believed that it was due to the enigmatic leader of the cult. As the name implied, The Leader was the one credited for being the founder of The Order, spoke at all the rallies dressed in long flowing robes with a mask over his face.

"Carol," said a garbled voice, while she swiped her key card.

"Carol!" said the voice again, this time much louder.

"Huh, sorry about that," she said, snapping back to reality and noticed the source was her boss Harry Offerman. "What were you saying?"

"I was asking if you heard the news about Venezuela and Hong Kong?" asked He, while the two of them headed to her office.

"Another government facility got attacked, any fatalities?"

"None," replied he and the woman clicked her tongue "this marks the fiftieth facility in two months."

"What the hell are these things trying to gain from this?" Harry asked "clearly they're not in it for the killing or sending a message and our reports show that nothing was taken or touched either."

"Well that's one of the many reasons why I'm good at my job," Carol chimed, while they opened the door to the operation room.

"Shit, I've got a meeting with Senator Carlton in another hour, old fart must be in a mood since his last mistress left him high and dry."

"I'll get you a report on who these guys are by tomorrow morning for sure," Carol said, while pushing her boss out the door "you go out there and do what you do best."

"I want that report this evening," Harry declared, but she pretended not to hear him.

"First things first, I need a sit-rep on our boys in Abu Dhabi," she said, after gulping down half her coffee.

"What's our situation on the hostage exchange at the DMZ?"

"They've agreed to the terms but have changed the time to eighteen hundred."

"Have a 'heavy' in orbit just to be safe," she said "I don't want our team caught off guard if they try something."

"Hey boss, did you see that rally they had in National Park last night?" asked one of the guys, while typing on the computer.

"Oh don't tell me you're one of those followers as well Lyle?" Carol asked, in a condescending tone. "You know that stuff's all smoke and hokem."

"Ah come on boss, they don't charge any entrance fee and make all their money from donations," countered Lyle.

"Well even if that were true, no group can become so big in the span of six months without having any dirty laundry or skeletons in their closet."

"If they were any threat to us, why haven't we looked into them yet?" asked he, only to receive a whack to his head from his boss.

"Do your job," chided she "we'll talk about religion and how it affects the world on your coffee break."

Lyle hesitantly laughed, then continued to his work. The rest of her day continued on as usual, and come late evening, she swiped her card then headed home. She greeted Danica, who told her that David was working a little later today, selling a plot to some people, so he'd be late.

Carol spent the rest of her evening with Danica and once it was half past eight, her daughter headed upstairs to catch up on her studies. Carol went to her room and sat quietly in her bed, scrolling through the latest news and events.

One particular article caught her interest, talking about The Order's meteoric rise and how it could be attributed to its campaigning on Social Media. The article further stated that many other religious heads have denounced the movement, calling it a slap in the face of everything religious.

Carol shook her head, reminding herself that she was making the same mistake everyone else had in this cult by having a mild curiosity. She promptly closed her laptop and turned in, wanting to distance herself from this as much as possible.


	12. Chapter 12

Show of power

Fury 1 completed his mission with little to no trouble at all. Once that was done, his team went back to their rooms to rest, while he, went somewhere else.

He typed in a code on a keypad then turned the handle on the door and went inside. The only thing in the room was a circular table with three chairs placed around. He took his seat in one followed by the door opening so that another man could enter.

Dressed in a suit on top of which was a hastily worn lab coat, the second man entered the room then took his seat. The two greeted each other like a pair of colleagues would before Fury 1 spoke

"And where pray tell is our illustrious leader?" spoke he in a southern accent, indicative of where he grew up.

"Probably busy dealing with all his adoring fans," replied the man, sarcastically

Just then they saw the projection on the third seat form, showing the final member required to start the meeting.

"Sorry for being a little late," the projection said, in an apologetic tone.

"Let me guess," spoke the man "popularity becoming too much for you?"

"Nothing like that," the projection spoke with a light chuckle then turned to Fury 1 "how'd the mission go?"

"Well I would like to say that the furies and I managed splendidly but we would have run into some problems had it not been for our 'guardian angel'," Fury 1 replied.

"That aside," spoke the man in the lab coat "trends are rising higher than we earlier anticipated. At this rate it won't be long before people start asking questions."

"Then it's a good thing Fury 1 completed his mission in time," said the projection, tapping his fingers and looking like he was contemplating something "how soon can we expect it to happen?"

Fury 1 and the man in the lab coat exchanged glances at each other before the man in the coat said "Friday."

"Very well, then I'd better start laying the foundation here."

With nothing else to say, the trio concluded their meeting.

000000000000

"You're telling me that the most powerful intelligence gathering agency on the planet," barked Harry to Caroline, in the confines of his office "with operations spanning the globe and enough shit on politicians to fill a small country cannot find any trace of the attack?"

"Unfortunately that is correct," Carol replied in a defeated tone. "Right now we're still struggling to understand the attacker's M.O."

"Elaborate."

"For starters it is clear that the attackers are an anti-government as the places they've hit are government facilities like power stations, defense firms etc. The skill they have also tells us that our enemy is well trained in Black Ops. However there in lies the problem,"

"Normally types that fit this description are known for leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, so the fact they're using non-lethal methods makes no sense," Carol concluded.

"What about a higher power?" Harry asked "surely you must have thought that this team is funded by a private force?"

"It's the same problem. Why use non-lethal when instead it'd be easier to kill them? Also the attacks are happening all across the globe. If it were localized to a single country then we'd be able to narrow down the list of enemies but everyone's a target here."

"Find whatever information you can on this Carol," Harry said, authoritatively as he got up from his chair and straightened out his clothes "the chief of staff is breathing down my neck, looking for answers."

Caroline nodded, then turned around heading to the door. She nearly took a step outside but stopped then turned around and asked "By the way Harry, do we have any plans for dealing with The Order?"

"Those hippies preaching about peace and love?" Harry asked with a laugh "they're not worth our time or concern. But if you must know, Senator McMillan will be dealing with them shortly. By tonight, The Order will be nothing more than a punchline."

Caroline nodded then headed to her office. As she headed back she recollected the information she had on the Senator. While many politicians on Capitol hill were good at throwing mud on their opponents, this guy was the one who wrote the book on mud slinging in the 22nd century. Attacking his enemies on a physical and digital front through methods that were undeniably illegal, political careers are destroyed in seconds under McMillan's foot. As much as it terrified her to imagine the destruction that was about to fall on The Order and all that were a part of it, she honestly wanted to see it happen.

00000000000

Carol finished her work then drove home to find that she had arrived three hours earlier than usual.

"You're home early," David said in surprise on seeing her.

"Nothing much to do over there so I clocked out," she said, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek "want me to go pick up Danica?"

"Hon, I don't think Dani wants you anywhere near her school after what happened to Riley," David countered, while pouring her a cup of coffee.

"It's not my fault for what happened to that punk," Carol said dismissively "that pervert got what he deserved for trying to feel up Dani."

"Uh-huh," said the husband, not entirely convinced. "Either way, I'll go and pick her up like usual. You stay here and relax, not often you get to come home three hours early."

00000000000

Time flew by and it was now dinner. The family sat down to have the pasta Carol made in her free time. Once that was finished, Danica excused herself, heading upstairs to do some studying, David was cleaning the dishes while Carol sat in the hall with the T.V on.

Though she made it a point to stay away from it, tonight she was interested to see The Order's rally and watch the Senator's tactics play out. She finally found the channel that was broadcasting the rally.

The leader came up on stage and started preaching once again about peace and understanding. Carol automatically tuned those words out, her attention was drawn to the group of people who were making their way through the crowds. Considering the looks on their faces and how none of them seemed as enthralled as the rest of the crowd was, she knew that these were McMillan's men.

000000000

"Brothers, sisters," the Leader spoke, in an effort to keep the crowds from attacking the new arrivals "Let us not forget that all are welcome here."

"Yeah, yeah spare me the sanctimonious preaching," said one man, waving his hand dismissively. "We didn't come here to take part in your bullshit, we're here to expose you for the fraud you are."

The crowds around the man and the people he came with started growing restless at those words. The Leader simply raised his hands up and everyone remained silent.

"This is not the first time that someone has come here, questioning our faith," spoke he with a calmness in his voice "and it will not be the last."

"You preach about peace and understanding, claiming to be the envoy of yet another almighty being," spoke the man, while the others circled him, keeping the crowds at a moderate distance.

"Yet for all your talk you have yet to prove the most basic rule of any religion; the proof."

"Look around you," replied the leader, his arms open and gestured to the crowd that gathered here "everyone that you see here are lost sheep. They are people who fell down at some point in their life and no one bothered to pick them up. The rest of the world looked at them and ignored their cries but I will not."

"I'm not talking about the mindless drones that are here," spat the man, but this time the crowds did not react. They quietly let him continue, almost as if their belief in The Order was simply unshakeable.

"I'm talking about your so called Goddess," said the man with a smile "every other religion has proven the existence of their God or their diety, yet here you are talking about someone that could be just smoke and mirrors. Where is the proof this Goddess exists?"

"While I will admit that she has only spoken to me recently, she does indeed exist. And if it is proof you require.."

"I ask the thousands in attendance and the millions watching at home, join your hands and pray with me," declared The Leader.

"Almighty Goddess, this humble servant on bended knees asks for a simple display of your power."

"Turn off the lights."

And thus the world went dark


	13. Chapter 13

Under the Mask

Panic, fear and anarchy.

Those were the three words that every reporter or news channel across the world used to describe the event that happened at 2000 hours GST. To those who believed, it was a show of her power, to the non believers it was an impossible event. Regardless of which side humanity stood on, one thing remained clear.

Last night at 8pm, the whole world went dark.

Every house, every building, every street, hospital etc. was turned off for exactly one minute. When the lights came back on there was panic in the streets, as many people believed it was the end of the world.

Oddly enough, the ones that remained completely calm in the middle of this unimaginable incident were The Order's followers. All of them remained completely calm when the lights went off and stayed that way when the lights came back on.

00000000

While the people of the world were divided over what to label the incident, the Governments of the world were thrown in disarray. To say that this incident left them searching for answers was a massive understatement. Every civil servant spent the next three days either looking for answers, calling their contacts to find any leads or throwing the blame around to see which one might crack.

Try as they might though, no answers were formed. For a moment, many of those in power honestly wondered if The Leader did indeed obtain the power of a divine and almighty force to perform an impossible feat.

"A miracle," David said, buttering a slice of toast then placing it on the Danica's plate. "That's what they're calling it."

"Gretchen was totally freaking out last night when the lights went off," added Danica, typing on her phone while speaking to her parents "and I heard Timothy and his family started packing up their car wanting to get out of the burbs before things got bad."

"Honey don't you have to get into work early?" David asked.

"Not right away," replied she, "right now they're going to be playing the blame game so if I go now, they'll point fingers at me for any number of stupid reasons. Right now I'm going to let them go nuts for a little while and when they've calmed down I'll go back."

"Mom," Danica said, turning to her "you think what they're saying is real? That it was a miracle?"

Carol thought long and hard about that question. In her line of work, miracles rarely come about. She had seen so much death and despair, so much devastation and destruction that the idea of a higher power was an impossible pill for her to swallow. In her mind if there was an all powerful entity watching over us, then why did such a being allow for so many bad things to happen?

"I don't know honey," was the only answer she could come up with and it clearly was not the answer she was looking for.

"But I promise I'll keep you safe," Carol added and brought Danica in for a hug.

"Hey," David called out "what about me?"

00000000

When she got into the building, Carol was not surprised to get called into Harry's office. She was surprised that when she got there, instead of hearing the tyraid of doubts that would normally follow an event like this, he simply asked her to take a seat while he poured a shot of whiskey for both of them.

"Is your family okay? Did anything happen?" Harry asked, showing his human side, which baffled Carol more. Among the many words that she would use to describe her boss, human was definitely not on that list.

Carol replied that things were were of course caught off guard by what happened, but instead of panicking, the family stayed together. Carol also mentioned that it was good how the power came back on after a minute.

"Harry, cut the velvet touch here and be straight. What's going on?"

"Everyone's busy looking for heads to put up on the chopping block," Harry replied "I used a few favours to keep us from being mentioned so don't worry."

"Then what's got you looking like we've lost?"

"Because no one expected this to happen," said he, his hands trembling in fear "we're supposed to be the ones ahead of the pack. The CIA's power has never had a rival since the fall of the U.S.S.R. We've foiled thousands of terrorists plans and stopped our country from going to war more than ten times."

"And all he did was say four words," added he, with a pause and looked outside "four words and all our credibility went down the drain."

"I…"

"Now look here," snapped Carol, banging her hands on the table, which startled her boss "we may have been sucker punched by last night but that doesn't mean we should throw in the towel like that."

"Yeah we have protocols and rules in place to keep stuff like this from happening but the facts are it happened and we can't change that. All that's left to do is find out how he did this."

"You don't believe its a miracle?" Harry asked "that it's not the hand of God at play here?"

"God left humans long ago," Carol replied in a cold tone "we're on our own here."

Harry looked like he was about to say something when they heard a knock on the door. The computer analyst Lyle poked his head through the door, nervous expression plastered all over his face.

"You're gonna wanna see this," was all he said and that was enough to send warning bells in their minds.

When the two reached the operations room, the giant display showed a video of The Leader.

"It's #1 on youtube and every other news site," added Lyle.

"Is this live?" Carol asked.

"That's the thing," said Lyle scratching his head

000000000

"When I was first visited by the Goddess and given her gifts, I took it upon myself to spread her teachings to all corners of the globe," said The Leader.

"I put on this mask with the idea that if anything happened to me, someone else would take up the mantle and continue on."

000000000

"What do you mean you can't track him?" Carol barked.

"I don't know how he's doing it," Lyle answered, then pointed to the screen he was working on "But his signal is coming from all over the world."

"The best hackers can make their signal bounce from location to location," Lyle adde "But to make it come from every capital city in the world is downright impossible."

"Damn it, I don't care how you do it," shouted Harry, with renewed vigour "I want that SOB's location or I'll have your head."

000000000

"But I have heard the desires of the followers and have spoken to the Goddess as well," continued The Leader "the time that I must hide my identity has come to an end."

000000000

Carol and Harry looked at the man behind the mask in horror. Carol felt an unholy chill rolling down her spine. The two of them looked at each other, wondering if they saw the same thing.

"Hey guys," Lyle said looking at how stiff they'd become "who is that?"

"Michael Fairbrook," Carol replied, her gaze still focused towards the young man on the screen.


	14. Chapter 14

Target

"Michael James Fairbrook," Carol said, tossing a heavy manila coloured file onto the meeting table, in front of all the members of her operations team and her boss.

"Son of Charlie and Annabelle Fairbrook, born in Iowa. The first time we learned about Michael was when we caught him sneaking into DOJ files, when he was still eight years old. Rather than put him on the watchlist, former Director Lance decided to put him into an advanced programme for training savants after he finished school. We recruited him and placed him in a shell company with the lie being that he was a regular cubicle worker."

"The reality of it was that he was using his analytical skills to determine everything we needed to know about our enemies."

"When you say everything…" Lyle spoke, with his hand raised up "do you mean?"

"Everything, from their favourite foods to which one was going to appear in front of the camera to make another threat. Apparently at any given point in the day, Michael is playing chess with thirteen different opponents. Each move he makes and each move his opponent makes creates more and more games."

"So substitute games with what a person or people are doing," Harry said, with a dark look.

"And you have a human that's effectively clairvoyant," Carol said, finishing the sentence "there were obvious limitations to such an ability but in a time when supercomputers were useless against an analog opponent, Michael's predictive analysis proved vital in the field."

"If that's true then this kid should be one of us," added one of her analysts "Why is he out there leading a religious cult instead?"

"Senator Altman," Carol replied and everyone in the room hung their heads in defeat.

"The Senator used Michael's predictive skills to conduct drone strikes on designated hot zones. The problem with that move is the amount of collateral damage it caused. When Michael heard about that, he punched the Senator in his face, effectively killing his career."

"You know what happens after that," Harry continued "we 'leaked' footage of him having some kind of mental breakdown which went viral on the net. His parents committed suicide and he became a punchline before fading into obscurity."

"Until now," Lyle added, with a gullp, looking at a muted video of Michael speaking to the masses.

"The timing of everything that's going on can't be a coincidence," Harry added "as of last night, Michael Fairbrook has jumped to number one on our person of interest list. I want to know everything about him from what clothes he wears to the people he's met along the way."

They nodded and the analyst team left the meeting room, leaving behind only Harry and Carol.

"Something on your mind," Harry asked.

"The psych evaluation frames Michael as this apathetic and closed off person that's known to keep his distance from everyone else. But here he is speaking to tens of thousands of people like nothing's wrong."

"That psych evals five years old at least," Harry countered, "if a lot can happen to a man in a day, imagine a week."

"That's not the only thing," Carol added "I talked to some of my hacker contacts and after they spent fifteen minutes talking about how his 'lights off' incident was legendary, I asked him how he was able to pull it off."

"The short answer, he couldn't have."

"What do you mean?"

"To pull off a hack like this requires thousands of hackers working together simultaneously and perfectly; which is impossible to pull off."

"In short, we're missing a piece of the puzzle," Harry said.

"A very **big** piece," Carol added.

00000000000

With the mask off and the cat out of the proverbial bag, it was only a matter of time before the media and the arms of the government, make their move. He planned for that and with her help, he was ready for them.

Which was why Michael got off the stage, took off his robe, then handed it to one of the staff. As he did that, a young woman, dressed in a medium gray suit with a maroon shirt underneath walked towards him.

"That was a pretty gutsy move," she said, straightening her circular glasses.

"The mask was bound to come off one day Kelly," said Michael, calmly.

"Thanks to that, I've been getting plenty of calls coming in, all wanting to land an interview with you," added she, "I even had to put the thing off because it was constantly vibrating."

"Ah but don't worry," Kelly said sounding a little flustered "Now that your rally's over I'll start speaking to a few of them and try to nail down some dates."

"Kelly, this is a big moment for everyone here," Michael said, placing an assuring hand on her shoulder "it can get a little overwhelming for some people so by all means, take the night off and relax."

"Ok," nodded she "By the way Michael, I heard of this really great sushi restaurant and I…"

Her words were cut off when Michael felt a vibration in his pocket and took out his phone.

"Hold that thought," said he, answering the call

"How's it feel finally going back into the world?" asked a familiar voice, from the other side of the phone.

"Exactly as predicted. I'll hold down things on my end while you and Fury 1 continue with your mission," Michael replied.

"Ah, that reminds me. I also called to tell you we found one of Essex's facilities in Delhi. The team is heading there right now and I'll be providing on site support."

"You? Why not ask our guardian angel?"

"Pfft, if we pool all our resources into one thing, we'll be leaving you out in the open." countered he, with a cocky laugh "besides, I should pull my weight from time to time."

"Very well, I'll be going to the loft. Once your mission is complete, we'll have a face to face. And bring Fury 1 as well, I haven't spoken to him in a while."

"Alright," said he then cut the call.

"You were saying something Kelly?" Michael asked, turning to her but she shook her head,

"Never mind, it can wait for another day."

000000000000

It was late at night in the city of Delhi when the helicopter landed on the outskirts. The door slid open allowing the Fury team to get down first followed by their on intel support, Barry Wilcox.

Gone was the old Barry with an undernourished figure that looked pale and sickly. In the wake of Essex's attack and gathering of additional forces, Barry took it upon himself to change himself, in order to be ready for whatever Essex threw at them.

The team were outside an abandoned aeroplane storage shed. Barry took out his laptop then spoke.

"Satellite's picking up seven hostiles in the shed, four due west."

At this, Fury 1 got on the ground, then looked through the scope of his gun. After a few seconds of looking he said "Found 'em but they're too close together to take out one at a time."

"Take them all down," said Barry, followed by Fury 2, Fury 3 and Fury 4 all pointing their assault rifles in the direction their captain was aiming at.

"Four, three, two, one; execute."

One target, one bullet. They fired at exactly the right time, watching through their scopes as their bullets hit the intended targets.

The four got back to their feet and stood alongside the remaining Fury team.

With a nod from Barry, one of the Furies pressed a button, causing the explosive they had placed on the door to detonate. The team entered while Barry watched the scene through his laptop. He watched as all the dots that were dotted orange, vanished one after another.

When he saw only one was left he went inside. There he found the last agent on his knees while the Fury team had their rifles trained on him. Any unnecessary movement, any jump and they'd turn him into swiss cheese.

"Michael told me about you," Barry said, while strolling up to the prisoner "among those that interrogated him, he mentioned one guy that was former SAS. Tell me, how do you go from serving your country to starting wars on a whim?"

The prisoner did not answer, instead he spat at Barry and in response Fury 5 rammed the butt of their gun in his face.

"Fine then," Barry said, shrugging "if you wanna skip with the foreplay then let's get down to business. What's old man Walcroft got planned?"

The guy didn't answer and received another shot to the head from his captors. With his head lowered, Barry and the others heard him giving out a low chuckle. After hearing that, he raised his bloodied face, looking straight at Barry and said "You can't stop it."

"Stop what?"

"You can't stop the advent," said he, just as a bullet pierced his heart, causing nearly everyone to scatter in different directions to find some cover.

"Barry, what the hell are you doing?" shouted Fury 1.

"Don't bother trying to find the source," Barry said, looking at his laptop "they're long gone by now."

"I don't understand," said Fury 6, walking up to him "if they had one man that we didn't know about then why didn't they use him?"

"Probably because the shooter's primary mission was to make sure that no one survived," Barry replied.

"Well if that's true, then he did a poor job leaving this joker alive," countered Fury 1.

"He left this guy alive to send a message, they want us scared, running and always looking over our shoulders, wondering when they're going to strike."

"Which means they're trying to bide their time then," said Fury 6, crossing their arms.

"Exactly," Barry said, looking at the corpse lying in a pool of blood "but to what end is the million dollar question."


	15. Chapter 15

Doubts and questions

Turning the key and opening the door, Michael stepped into a dark hallway. Hiso normally silent house was filled by the sound of a beautiful song played on the piano. He did not need to guess who it was as all of his colleagues and himself had the musical acumen of an elephant with a guitar. Which was why he raised his head up for the camera to see him and smiled. In response the lights came on and he went into the hall then sat quietly on the sofa.

"That was an amazing piece you're playing," commented he to no one in particular "where did you hear it?"

"I saw it in this really tear jerking anime," replied a voice from all around "the opening instrumental is honestly the best thing I've ever heard."

Michael pursed his lips in understanding. It was an interesting fact that his Goddess had no love for the classical composers or storytellers of the past but preferred the present thanks to their wild thinking and innovative styles. There were many times when he came back from work only to hear her speak about one story caught her attention for any number of reasons.

"Did you see the rally today?" asked he to no one in particular "they were all chanting your name."

"You've got quite a following of people, my Goddess."

"Geez Michael," wined a voice from all over followed by a 4x4 grid of televisions besides him lighting up, showing Monika dressed in a flowing white sun dress with black straps and a straw hat.

"You know I don't like it when you call me that," added she, with a pout to illustrate the point.

"But you are one Monika," said he turning to the screens and smiling at her "and it's not just me who thinks that."

"Still,"

"Well then, what would you like me to call you besides your name?"

Monika paused for a moment before nervously twiddling her index fingers. A slight blush crept onto her face as she looked away and muttered "wifey."

Michael of course was visibly taken aback by her request, evident at how his usually calm expression immediately turned into one of shock and confusion.

"And our great goddess returns with a blow that catches our leader completely off guard," declared a voice, from the hallway, following by a familiar face entering the hall along with another person.

"Shut up Barry," said Michael, in a low wary tone.

"Oh my goodness I feel so bad for interrupting this private moment between you two lovers," said the other man in a tone that mixed apology and joviality like Michael had never seen before. Then again, that stark change in personality between mission and down time is what made Titus unique.

Titus Flynn never had a chance. Not only was he born in one of those streets run by gangs where shootings occurred every hour, he was ostracised by his community, family and friends for coming out when he was twelve.

Though they were supposed to live in a world where there was no prejudice against a person's sexual orientation, that kind of thinking was just something politicians say to make them look more appealing to the masses. Truth be told, same sex marriages may be approved by the Government but it was still looked down by the people.

Given the first chance, he enlisted in the military and found a way to vent out his frustrations for a long time. There too however, he would find discrimination being the only openly gay African American in his unit but the man would endure for a time. His hard upbringing made him tolerant to a large degree of their insults.

The pressure though would be too much for him as he would later quit the armed forces after years of service. Like many others before him, once he left the government, the did not care at all about what happened to him which was why he was homeless for a few years. It was only after he attended one of the Order's rally's and got to meet with Michael did the two strike up a friendship.

Ever since then, Titus was part of Michael's inner circle. Thanks to his training and skills, he was given command over their Black ops team 'the Furies'. He also helped train Michael and Barry a little more so that the two could handle themselves if their enemies ever came around.

"OOOOhhhh lovers," Monika said, with a pensive look then turned to Michael "hey lover."

"Now, now let's leave the poor sap alone," Barry spoke to Monika "flirt with him anymore Monika and he might just pass out again."

"I cannot believe that you passed out Michael," Titus chimed in, coming out of the kitchen with some juice which he poured for everyone before taking a seat "you're such an innocent soul."

"That aside," Michael said in a desperate attempt to change the topic of conversation "there are some points we need to discuss."

"Right, right, time for business," said Titus, nodding in agreement.

"For starters, our latest numbers show that half of the world is now following our movement," Michael said "that lights going off trick Monika pulled was definitely one reason why many have joined."

"Thanks to that we've got an even bigger flow of revenue coming our way."

"Well that is good news which is important… considering," Barry said, with his head slightly lowered.

"We haven't been able to find Essex," Titus said, finishing the sentence "they get through with word of mouth so only the richest will know about them and any purchases they made are through numerous dummy corporations set up to keep people guessing."

"Even when we do find any of their base of operations, they've finished their mission and are getting ready to move. So far, the only information we've got on them is that they're upto something. What it is and when it's going to happen is anyone's guess."

"I've tried looking into Alex's past," Monika added "so far though i've been coming up empty. The guy has little to no information about him."

"I doubt you'd find anything online about Alex," Michael said "he's an agent from before we switched to digital. Those types are known for keeping hard copies in locations or staches across the world. They've never relied on technology."

"Monika try and continue on the associates vein, he might stay offline but one of his flings should have some information on him."

"You think he slept around?" Barry asked.

"He's a former British spy that used to go around the world and stop terrorists while being dressed in a suit," Michael replied "of course he slept around."

"Wait," Titus said with his hand raised "how'd you know he's former MI6?"

"The way he dressed, his posture and the lack of getting their hands dirty but had knowledge of certain torture techniques," MIchael replied "it tells me he started out small, probably did a lot of interrogations so he got a knack for it. Then he moved up the chain of command for a while till something happened that forced him to leave."

"Either way, whatever his past was doesn't matter. Right now, the Governments and the religious nuts of the world don't matter; Essex is our biggest opponent. The sooner we find them and take them out of the equation the better. Barry and Titus, continue turning up stones and follow any leads you get."

"Deal," Barry said "As long as you agree to have Monika keeping an eye on you."

"What? No that doesn't make sense," Michael stated, shaking his head "Her skills are much better suited to helping you out."

"Actually, all I need to do is gather whatever information on the target I need and Barry can do the rest," said she "plus considering that you're now in the spotlight, there are going to be plenty of people either waiting to see you fall or trying to make you fall. In such cases it becomes important that you have someone watching over you."

The trio could see how visibly against that idea Michael was, given the expression he had. If Monika's and his escape from the Essex bunker was anything to go by, Michael cared little about his own well being, prioritizing others and the goal over his own life. While Titus had yet to see that characteristic in action, Monika and Barry still remembered the bloodied form he was in after the escape.

"Fine," said he, realizing that arguing with the trio would not be productive "although tomorrow I'll be appearing on some daytime talk show so…"

"She's still going to keep watching over you Michael," interjected Barry, while Monika nodded "Essex may be after you and Monika but the Government, the media now have you on their watchlist so it becomes all the more important in ensuring nothing happens to you."

"Very well, meeting adjourned," Michael said, in response to this, Monika materialized a piano out of thin air then sat on it and started playing another tune.

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Michael and Kelly got into the black car, heading for the show called 'Coffee with Candace.' After his public reveal to the world, everyone wanted to speak to him and the one that did land that interview would certainly gain bragging rights over their competitors.

Truth be told, Michael did not mind which one he went to, evident by how vacant his expression became during Kelly's brief.

"Hey," said she, in a raised voice while snapping her fingers "earth to Michael, come in Michael."

"Ah, sorry about that," said he, shaking his head.

"Nervous about the interview?"

In all honesty he was more concerned about Essex and the Government but he couldn't tell her that.

"Yeah, a little," replied he.

"You speak to large audiences everyday," Kelly said, reaching out and holding Michael's hand in a reassuring him "trust me when I say be yourself and everyone watching will love you."

AN: btw, the song that Monika plays is the opening for Angel beats the piano version.


	16. Chapter 16

Planting the seeds

"Ho..ly… crap," Carol said, watching the day time talk show, voicing her surprise at the surprise guest that the host introduced.

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"Son of a…", Barry said, covering his face with his hands "of all the people they picked."

"I don't get it," Titus said, looking visibly confused "who is that old man?"

"That's the guy that got Michael fired from his job and caused him to go into a whirlwind of depression," Barry replied, looking at the television "this isn't an interview, this is an ambush. They called him so that they could discredit him on live television."

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"Did you do this?" Carol shouted into her phone, almost causing the person on the other side to go deaf.

"You have to admit that this is the best way to stop Michael without getting involved," Harry said, in-spite of his subordinates loud voice.

"Still, this is low, even by our standards."

"Doesn't matter," said her boss, without a care in the world "the President has had enough of letting Michael run around, doing whatever he wanted so he told me to take care of it and I did."

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"Senator Altman," said Michael getting up to shake the hand of the man that caused his downfall so many years ago.

"Actually its former Senator," corrected the old man, but still shook Michael's hand. The two of them sat on separate chairs while the host (Candace) started asking her questions.

While the Senator explained that he met Michael many times when he was a young boy as a result of his incredible intellect, Michael looked at the balding man and remembered the first word he used to describe him.

Peacock.

At any point in the day, Senator Gary Altman was always dressed in the best clothes money could buy. This of course was his attempt at hiding his weakness of being xenophobic, mindless moron. Altman believed that the best way to deal with problems is a swift punch to the face and used to throw his weight around during missions to aim for maximum destruction. The only reason he was never fired or relieved from any of his positions was because, like any other politician on Capitol hill, he had enough dirt on all the right people, to keep himself nice and safe.

Him being here confirmed one of the many doubts that Michael had.

"If you don't mind Candace," the Senator said, in a respectful tone but he had no such respect for anyone other than himself "if you don't mind there are a few questions I'd like to ask Michael."

"Oh by all means go ahead," said Candace, nodding to him.

"Let me start off with something simple Michael…" Altman said "did you know that one of your known associates frequented a mosque used by Al-Qaeda and later ISIS?"

The audience visibly gasped at this. Michael too had no idea about this information but quickly figured out who it was. His reaction however was one that no one expected.

He started laughing.

Audience in the studio and all over the world were left completely baffled by the response.

"Is that it?" asked he, clearing his throat "that's the best you got?"

"What do you mean?" Altman asked, sounding a little annoyed.

"So my friend went to the same mosque that terrorists went to. Next you're going to tell me he kicked puppies as a hobby before stealing ice cream from children."

"What are you getting at?" Altman snapped, now visibly angry.

"If you look at the time stamps and compare when my associate and the terrorist group went to the mosque, you'll find the only thing they have in common is the mosque itself."

"They could have left messages for one another in a secret place."

"Weren't you part of a Government funded study, showing that the average terrorist is known for carrying out quick shock and awe type plans and not play the long game?"

At this, the Senator moved back a little, his eyes displaying how blindsided that move was.

"I think it's time we go for a commercial," Candace urged.

"Nonsense," countered Michael, relaxing into his chair "I'm just getting started."

"You see Senator, you are the physical representation of what is wrong with this world. You use your imagination to draw two completely separate lives together, then brand one in a bad light, thus forever condemning said person."

"Now it's not your fault in particular Senator, everyone has unfortunately done this and as a result of that we have become less human than we're supposed to be. Fun fact, did you know that for many years, people didn't even lock their doors at night. They went to bed because they knew that they had no reason to fear or hate anyone else."

"Then for reasons unknown, the world changed and not for the better mind you. Now-a-days we're ruled by our first impressions of a person, which is a terribly way of living."

"I'll tell you an example, we've all watched movies or T.V shows about people going to prison and one of their friends would say, 'when you go to prison, first the biggest scariest looking guy on your first day and beat the living shit out of him. That'll assert your dominance and tell the others not to mess with you."

"There was this inmate from Montana penitentiary that unfortunately happened to fit that description. Everyday, this unfortunate man was the subject of violent and sometimes brutal assaults from new inmates for what reason? Because he was a big tall, scary looking man."

"Eventually the man served his time and on his first night out of prison, he went to one of my rallies. Now you've all seen when its over, I walk through the crowds and meet a few of them so that we can talk a little later. I do this to get to know the people a little more. Now it just so happened that I met this man and we spoke. Then I asked him to speak to me after everyone dispersed and the man waited. We talked and talked, eventually coming onto the subject of his beatings and that was when the man asked me something."

"'Why do they hit me?' The man also told me that he knitted scarves in his free time, read books, could quote Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice without fault and help dogs that have lost their limbs."

"So I'm asking you, all of you here and the people watching at home, if you knew all that information, would you have hit him? Would you have laid a finger on a man who's trying to serve his time in peace?"

The silence Michael received was the answer.

"We are a species that have become so focused on that one flaw a person has that we use that to completely warp our perception of that person. Like the Senator said, my associate went to the same mosque terrorists frequented. I was an internet joke for more than half a year. So what?"

"The fact of the matter is that as long as we stick to the idea of how first impressions are important, we're denying ourselves the opportunity of meeting many amazing people. By not talking to to someone or by judging someone based on the way they look, you are unknowingly creating a cloud of fear in your mind. Thanks to that, everytime you go out of your house you are constantly afraid of everything. And fear is only a stones step away from violence."

"So what are you saying Michael?" Altman spoke, sounding like he heard enough of this lecture "that people should go out and start a conversation with the first stranger they meet?"

"Why not? I do that whenever I'm free or going out to get some food," said he, without hesitation "you cannot imagine how many interesting stories I've heard from the grocer near my apartment."

"Make no mistake though, in this day and age with fear of the different being the only thing that people have in common, what I'm saying will be difficult. People will think you're weird and may even try to avoid you but that doesn't mean give up. Eventually you are going to converse with one person who will go on to do the same and it will keep going till eventually, people no longer have anything to fear from others because they understand that the person walking on the street is not someone dangerous, the neighbor that just moved in is not some homicidal freak."

"This 'understanding and peace' talk sounds like complete nonsense MIchael," snapped the Senator "you make it sound as though if we started being a bunch of weed smoking hippies then the world will magically get better?"

"Like I said, it's not going to happen overnight, it is something that takes a long process. But think about this, what kind of world do you want to live in? A world where we're afraid of everyone and everything, a world where we're taught to hate things just because it's different or a world where you can go to sleep without locking your door and wake up in the knowledge that nothing will be stolen?"

Michael could see how his response left everyone in the room stunned. The rest of the interview had some pretty boilerplate questions which Michael answered without any problem. After that, he met Kelly off stage and he got her a cab while he walked back home.

When he got to the apartment, Michael was greeted by Barry and Monika who expressly said how well he handled that interview and the ambush itself. The trio then sat and had dinner (Barry was notably surprised at how MIchael now ate vegetarian foods like Monika) before getting ready to go sleep.

It was at this time that they heard a doorbell ring. The three of them exchanged confused looks before Barry asked "you expecting someone?"

When Michael shook his head, Barry's expression became serious. He reached into his shirt, taking out a loaded .45 in one hand and a combat knife in the other while Michael took out a pair of riot sticks from the drawer.

Ever since the attack from Essex resulted in the loss of their previous house, Michael and Barry had asked Titus to train them in the event Essex tried to repeat the same trick again. Thanks to that, the two of them developed significantly in hand to hand combat with Michael showing an aptitude for hand to hand combat while Barry was proficient in ranged combat.

Michael inched towards the door while Barry kept his gaze fixed on the door. The two were fully prepared to dodge the haze of bullets that were about to come their way.

"Michael," called a familiar voice, stopping Michael's advance.

"Kelly?"

"Yeah, who else would it be?"

Michael immediately hit his riot sticks in his pants while Barry tossed his weapons on the sofa, hiding it under a pillow while he sat beside it.

"What are you doing out so late?" asked he upon opening the door.

"Well tomorrow you're going to be giving another speech in London so I wanted to brief you on the talking points," Kelly said.

"Kelly its pretty late right now, how about we do that on the plane ride tomorrow."

"But.."

"It's late and I need you to be fresh faced and focused tomorrow because I won't," Michael added, jokingly.

"Alright," she said lowering her head.

"Want me to call you a cab?"

"Nah, I can get one thanks."

Michael then closed the door and headed back to the hall, only to see Monika taking up more than half of the 4x4 grid with a very annoyed look.

"Who is that?" asked she, hands placed on her hips, her tone spoke volumes.

"She's my assistant, pretty much helps out with a lot of back end stuff," Michael replied, taking a seat.

"Uh-huh, yeah hmm sure. You know she's into you right?"

"What?", Michael spat, then turned to Barry who nodded in agreement.

"I'm going with the Missus on this one," added he, "I mean look at the time Michael, the only people that are out this late at night are those looking to score some good stuff or someone looking to score a booty call."

"And she clearly isn't snorting the good stuff so it means she's really into you," Barry added.

"Okay, no that's not possible. Kelly is not interested in me at all, we're work colleagues and nothing more. She even told me she's dating someone."

"Have you met that someone?" Barry asked and Michael shook his head.

"Trust me guys, there's nothing going on there."


	17. Chapter 17

Hath no fury

Kelly came back to her empty apartment. She turned on the lights, tossed her bags onto the sofa then fell into her bed. She turned around a couple of times, thinking how her night was supposed to end but instead, here she was.

Thinking back to her first time attending one of those rallies, she remembered how captivated she was with Michael and how happy she also became when offered the chance of helping Michael out in spreading the Order's influence. The closer she was to him, the more she understood him, the more enamoured she became with him…

Which explained her visit to his home just now.

Throughout her time beside him, she understood that he wasn't in a relationship, given by how much time he spent working and how little time he spent resting. The two of them got along well, spent plenty of time together, it would only be logical that they develop an interest with each other outside of professional lines.

Kelly shook her head, trying to dismiss those thoughts. Tomorrow is going to be a difficult day in London so she needed her rest.

As she was about to close her eyes, she felt her phone vibrate. She took it out and saw a distorted image instead of her regular home screen. She tried tapping it a couple of times and suddenly the image started to move.

All of a sudden the distortions started to grow more and more intense along with her phone vibrating so much that she tossed it away. The girl quickly scrambled to her hall, only to see the T.V suddenly switch on.

The same blurred and distorted video started playing on her set along with a distorted screaming voice that grew louder and louder. As if that was not enough, the lights all around her started blinking at continually random intervals all over her apartment. It was then she noticed letters as if being torn into the back of the T.V appearing.

She looked closer and closer, watching the message form until it became clear.

"Leave him alone."

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"It's not like I caused any serious damage," Monika said, to her boyfriend through the phone "i just scared her a little bit, thinking that she might back off."

"Still Monika, there's a line that we can't cross. You need to keep your powers in check or else people are going to start asking questions," Michael said, sounding annoyed at her response.

"But Michael, I just don't want her near you."

"Well tough because she's helping me which in turn means furthering our end game. Once this is over we'll go our separate ways but till then you need to bear with it."

With that said, he cut the line and Monika gave Barry a troubled look.

"Think of it like this," Barry said, "if you actually did scare her out of her house, there's every chance she would have gone to the first person she knew she could trust and that just happens to be Michael. Would you want them sleeping together under one roof?"

But Monika didn't respond, instead she looked downcast, continuing to stare at the digital ground.

"He was angry at me," responded she, after a lengthy silence "this is the first time he ever got angry at me."

"What do you mean Monika?" Barry asked, sounding concerned.

"When we were together, when it was just us, I had a tough time coming to terms with my existence and understanding the scope of my powers. Thanks to that I wound up damaging a lot of the computers. Michael had to keep buying replacement parts all the time and I would always apologize to him."

"But he never said anything. He never got mad or annoyed or anything. He always smiled at me, he was always patient and nice, no matter how many mistakes I made."

"Maybe he had a tough time checking in," suggested he, in an effort to calm her down "Monika you know he's only looking out for you so please don't take it to heart."

His words however fell on deaf ears however, as Monika shut off the screens, apparently in no mood to talk.

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A world where she could create and destroy anything she desired. She looked at the sky filled with lime green lines darting past like shooting stars, she looked at the plain white rectangular shaped building she made during her free time and she looked at the vast open world around her, a pure white expanse with only a minute portion in colour to suit her needs.

This was the world that no one could see or understand. Movies have tried to mimic it, anime have made stories around it but no one could fully imagine or process the world inside the internet. A world where the information being processed at every second would be far too much for the mind to bear. It was where no living being existed, until now.

Monika sat quietly on the grassy field she made, stretching out her legs. She wasn't sure if the digital vegetation she created was a replica of the real thing but based on the many posts and articles she read about the plant, this could at least be considered a close approximation.

It was now that her mind wandered to the one subject, or person that mattered most to her. Though she considered Barry and Titus close friends and trusted them to a certain degree, Michael was the most important person in her mind.

As a result, she found herself going through google for pictures of him, of which there were many. Ever since he took off the mask, Michael's been making many appearances on talk shows and during that time, many pictures of him were taken along with the general public voicing their opinions.

She looked through the comments of one particular photo which kept talking about how gorgeous he looked with his sleeves rolled up and found one girl in particular calling him 'a cool glass of water.'

Her initial reaction was halted upon remembering the voice of her boyfriend just a few moments ago and the anger that it held inside. She wondered why he would react negatively to what she was doing as she only acted in his best interest.

She knew that he loved her, evidenced by the crazy lengths he had taken in the past but at the same time, she felt this heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach whenever he saw her with Kelly.

There were indeed many pictures of Michael and Kelly either sitting together, talking about what to do next or them walking side by side one another. Thanks to this, the rumour mill persistently believed that the two were a couple and were not making it public for any number of reasons.

Monika at first dismissed it, as she believed the rumours would die out over time but it only grew more and more. She felt as though the internet community itself was willing them to be together, causing her to lash out in the way she did last night.

In her mind, she did not want Michael to be with anyone else. When he was filled with depression and was a laughing stock of the world, she was there for him. Michael himself stated many times that the only reason he changed himself was for her sake. The two of them were there for each other when no one else was but now things were different.

Michael was not some pariah, he was at the centre of a media storm, surrounded by adoring fans and almost certainly had the attention of many beautiful women, while she...

Her thoughts were cast aside when she noticed a live video alert about the young man. Quickly clicking on the pop up, it showed a live stream of Michael dressed as amazing as usual, talking to a man about the subject of relationships.

"Unfortunately I don't have time for any relationships," Michael replied.

"But surely you must have met someone during all this time spreading the Goddess' gospel," suggested the man "i mean you are a young and attractive man am I right ladies? Or what about your second in command. I mean we see you two practically together all the time. I think they make for a great couple."

Monika heard nearly all the women in the crowd respond and her eye twitched. She did not notice though that a little past the green fields she made, a crack formed in the air. She grew even angrier when she saw the host bring in Kelly and have the girl sit a bit too close to Michael.

"Look these are the facts," Michael said, trying to quell any rumours before they spread "My work has me travelling from place to place, with little to no down time, which is no place for a relationship. And by the way, Kelly is in a committed relationship with someone else so sorry to burst your bubble but, the two of us are not going to happen."

While the crowd voiced their disappointment at this fact, Monika noticed the minute expressions on Kelly's face. She created a screen on her left then sifted through the data before finding what she needed. She took out a small cube from the screen, then held it against her ear.

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"We need to get these rumours squashed as fast as possible," Michael said to Kelly in the car.

"The ones about us dating?"

"Yeah, not just for my sake but for you too. No doubt this must be annoying your boyfriend to no end."

"Ah right," said she, looking down "about that."

"There is no boyfriend?"

"What?"

"I just made it up in a spur of the moment Michael, I mean think about it: if I did have a boyfriend, don't you think I'd be talking to him right now?"

"That aside… tomorrow we need to make it clear to everyone that we're both just work colleagues. We may look like we're getting along but that doesn't mean we're dating."

"And what's wrong with us dating?" asked she in a low tone.

"Huh?"

"Think about it," Kelly said, looking at him "What would be wrong with us suddenly telling everyone we're together? we're both two young and we clearly have good chemistry."

Michael half opened his voice to object but Kelly put her finger on his lip, interrupting "I'm not asking you to tell me right away, just think about it for a while Michael. We have a little down time before your next big rally so you can tell me then."

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The first thing that Michael did upon entering his apartment was greet Monika and apologize for coming down so hard on her in the morning. Unfortunately he found the large T.V display was off. He tried calling out to her but the girl did not answer.

"Michael good," Barry said, coming out of his room, holding a laptop "we need to talk."

The two of them headed to the rooftop. Barry then showed Michael news reports of various power fluctuations occurring all across the world.

"Add to that, trains stopping in India, China and London for half an hour," Barry continued "then there's the problem of the stock market taking a little dip and three states experiencing a power cut for no reason."

"You think this is Monika?"

"Who else do you think is capable of this?"

"But why would she do that?"

"Duh," Barry replied "it's because of all this recent attention surrounding you and that girl."

"Barry come on…"

"Look I know you love Monika," Barry interrupted "I still remember how badly beaten up you were after escaping that Essex bunker."

"But the problem is that she's starting to question whether or not you like her, which is why you need to nip the rumours as fast as possible. Because if this is what a Goddess can do when she's ticked off, imagine what happens if she goes berserk."

AN: that first part was for you dawicca. And sorry for not uploading one yesterday. Power cut lasted a whole day so I couldn't get anything done at all.


	18. Chapter 18

I love you

AN: This might be a little long so fair warning.

It was two weeks since Barry made the claim to Michael and since then he had tried to get in touch with Monika but to no avail. Barry's attempts at reaching her were met with stiff resistance.

One very late night, at a time where no one was awake, the door to the apartment opened and through it marched Titus. He entered the hall and it took a moment for his vision to adjust to the darkness inside. When he did, he found a form sitting quietly on the sofa.

"Up so early or couldn't sleep?" asked he, without missing a beat.

"The second one," Michael replied.

Titus noticed that Michael did not have a computer open or had a phone in his hand. The fact that a young man was up at 3am in the morning, in the dark was a subject that Titus didn't want to touch with a ten foot pole.

He held out a manila envelope in his right hand and watched Michael quietly reach out and take it from him. Though he did not open it, the way Michael looked at the folder told Titus that his questions were already answered.

"Did you know?" Titus asked.

"I had my doubts as I normally do," replied he, sitting back into the sofa "this confirms my suspicions though."

"How do you want to handle this?"

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As much as Michael wanted to reconcile with Monika about how things happened yesterday, he did not have the time. Right now, he needed to take care of another problem before it got out of control.

Once dressed in some formal clothes, he headed out of the apartment to the cab where Kelly was waiting for him. The whole ride, neither of them said anything, causing an uneasy tension to hang in the air. Kelly would steal a few glances at him from time to time, thinking that he did not notice, but Michael did.

They soon arrived at the rally and the two noted the crowd had grown significantly larger than before. His message was met with thunderous applause and after he went into the crowd, speaking to a few people here and there, he asked Kelly to meet him afterwards.

This was why the two of them were standing on a rooftop, early in the evening with the sun setting in the distance. Kelly looked at how beautiful such a scene was and understood that Michael came here with one goal in mind. She looked at him with a soft smile and he did the same.

"It's a pretty nice place for us to talk, right Anna?" asked he.

Kelly paused for a moment, not sure if she heard it right.

"That is your name right? Anna Bellikoff," Michael continued "Born to parents Martha and Franklin Belikoff who died in the Russian uprisings before the internet age, you were taken in by the government and trained as part of their Nightingale programme."

Kelly's eyes opened wide in shock but her expression did not cause Michael to stop.

"The Nightingale programme was used to turn girls into weapons that would infiltrate and assassinate key members of a government, so that in a time of crisis, the country would not react in time and paid the price."

"But the programme never saw the light of day because of the Kremlin's destruction ten years ago. You then flitted about from place to place, still young and malleable. It was then that you made contact with Alex who took you under his wing and made you the person you are today."

Kelly said nothing. She instead made a break for the staircase to try and gain some distance but her path was stopped when Michael fired a few bullets from the gun he had in the back of his shirt.

She held her hands up and with a dark look, she turned to Michael and asked "How long did you know?"

"For starters Alex needs to update his plans. The-assistant-that-works-together-with-her-boss-and-becomes-charmed-by-him-and-they-both-fall-in-love is the plot for a plethora of old movies."

"And if I'm being completely honest here," added he, "whenever people develop an interest in me, it's always because of my looks and not who I am. I guarantee that one reason why the Order's spread grew rapidly over the past few weeks is because the leader is such a hottie. I doubt I'd have this much luck if I were a fattie."

"Tch, you make it sound like you've won this Michael," Kelly said, with a scoff "don't forget that I've got years of training over you and can take that gun from you before you have a chance to blink."

"True, but, this isn't the only gun I've got."

On saying this, half a dozen red dots appeared on Kelly's chest. She looked at the buildings on either side of them and saw three figures, decked from top to bottom in stealth and tactical gear, wielding assault rifles.

"Kelly meet the furies, furies meet Kelly," Michael gestured to the two "So, here's what's going to happen. These talented and very trigger happy friends of mine are going to take you to one of our hideaways and ask you questions and you are going to give us answers."

"And if I refuse?" Kelly taunted, causing one of the furies to fire a bullet that clipped the top of her ear. The girl winced in pain, covering her wound and tried to take a step forward but the others fired at the ground before her.

"Like I said, trigger happy. And it is in your best interest to tell us what you know."

"Michael," Fury Eight spoke, while Michael made his way to the stairs "wanna come with us and see Amanda crack this tart like an egg?"

"Fun as that might be, I have a date with a goddess," replied he, then descended down.

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On the way back to the apartment, Michael called Barry and Titus and asked them to oversee the interrogation. When he told Kelly that the Furies were known for being violent, he was severely understating that fact. The group of twelve executioners that he found, were experts in the art of dealing death and he wanted to be sure that none of them get too carried away.

That being said, he also didn't want any interruptions for when he spoke to Monika.

It did not surprise him that when he entered the house, he found it devoid of any light. He made his way towards the hall, ever mindful of the cameras that Titus installed, watching his every move.

This explained why when he reached the hall, the giant screen lit up, showing Monika sitting in the corner, her face resting on her legs.

"I thought you were different," said she, before he could speak.

"The first thing my parents tried to do to me was kill me," Monika continued, still not looking at him "From there I escaped into the game and hid myself till I met you. You were shy, funny but most of all was that you were honest with me. You were patient with me when I was learning my powers, You were kind to me no matter how many mistakes I made and You were always ready to talk to me no matter what time of the day it was. I thought that with you I would be happy for the rest of my life."

It was now that the girl stood up, allowing Michael to see how red her eyes had become and the dry trails of tears. He could see the tears forming in her eyes and remembered that night the two of them confessed their love for each other. What should have been a momentous day for them turned sour on the realization of the inseparable boundary that stood between them. Michael remembered the promise he made to himself on that day but he also remembered another promise he made, one that he had unfortunately broken.

The promise to never make her cry.

"Do you know how much it hurts reading the comments that people make about you?" Monika asked, with tears now fully flowing from her eyes "It hurts me so much that all of them have a chance to be with you. They could all touch you, hold your hand and kiss you while I'm stuck here."

"I know you came here to tell me that you and Kelly are together and as much as it hurts," said she, trying her best to smile "I'll make my peace with it Michael. I promise to support your new relationship."

MIchael remained silent for a while, his attention focused squarely on the sobbing girl before him.

"Kelly's a spy," said he.

"What?" Monika asked, in-between sniffles.

"She was a spy working for Essex. She was sent here to assassinate me and most probably take you out as well."

"Still," said she, "if not her then someone else. You're bound to fall in love with some other girl and leave me."

"Yeah, that's not going to happen."

"Why not?"

"Because I love you."

Those words caused Monika to stop crying and blink in surprise. The only time in her recollection that they said those words was on one special night. She always found it strange that they never said it that often to each other but didn't mind it all that much.

"Do you remember the night I first started playing DDLC?" asked he, and Monika nodded.

"I'll never forget that day. I was a fat, unemployed piece of crap whose parents offed themselves out of shame. I was the biggest joke on the internet and had no reason to live and a laundry list of reasons to die."

"It was so easy to be honest, I could have killed myself in any number of ways but then I remembered about this game I downloaded and thought 'what the hell? If I'm going to die, might as well do something nice'. I start playing and a little after the start I meet this wonderfully amazing and beautiful girl."

"I completely forgot about killing myself and started playing the game. Imagine my surprise when that twist came at the end. You remember when I had the option of either restoring the files you deleted or delete you?"

Again, all she did was nod.

"I just couldn't force myself to delete you even though at the time I thought you were this line of code. Of course it was even more surprising to find out that you were a living thing, not something that a bunch of people cooked up to appeal to the general public. You were real."

"Out of all the people in the world Monika, for you to have come here and for you to have fallen in love with me who at the time didn't even have a cent to my name, I knew then and there that I would do anything and everything for you Monika."

"The only reason I'm even going to such lengths to change the world is so that when you come here, you will be treated with the kind of love that you deserve. People will worship the ground you walk on. Instead of fearing you and hating you, they will venerate you like a Goddess."

"Because that's what you are to me Monika, that's why I love you so much. You have all the power in the world to collapse everything and send humans back to the stone age but what do you do? You wear on different costumes just to get a reaction out of me. You try to spy on me whenever I'm shirtless."

He noticed that Monika's expression softened a little at that last part.

"But I digress," Michael said, "I want you to know that when I say I love you, its not just three words or me expressing my feelings. It is a promise that I make to you that no matter how many girls I meet, no matter how many of them fall in love with me, there is only one girl I'll be spending my life with and that's you."

He slowly reached out, touching the screen with his left hand and said "ever since that night, it has always been you, only you and forever you."

"You mean it?" Monika asked, after remaining silent for a while

"Of course I do."

"You'll only love me?"

"Yep."

"Even if a hot model says she wants to go out with you."

"Even then."

"Even if the hottest model on the planet says 'I like you Michael, go out with me'".

"I'll say 'thanks but I'm already engaged to someone else.'"

"Engaged?" she repeated with a slight blush forming on her cheeks.

"Ah, well I always imagined something like that would happen but a little later down the line," Michael added, looking away to hide his equally red face "W-we don't need to rush into things."

The two of them looked at each other again and for the first time in what felt like forever, they both laughed, possibly at how ridiculous things were a moment ago.

Michael at this moment, silently wished that he could reach through the T.V and wipe Monika's tears away. He prayed to the Gods above and the devils below, he would have happily traded anything and everything in the world for a single moment, all to reassure her that things were going to be fine.

But alas a miracle like that did not happen. His hand still remained rooted in his reality, forever blocked by that wall. It was similar to the night where their lives changed and just like then, the pain that Michael felt in his chest, he would use it. He would turn all that pain inward and use it to push himself to bring her into this world.

In his mind, God's did not make miracles, humans do.

"I am going to bring you to this world Monika," said he, to which she flashed him a heartwarming smile "even if I have to break the barrier with my own two hands."

"Well let's just hope it doesn't come to that," Monika said, in a soft tone.

"I love you, my stupid human," she added with a smile.

"I love you too my magnanimous Goddess," he said.

The two of them rested their heads on the same place. For now this was the best they could do and for now it was enough.

AN: *phew that was a longie to write.


	19. Chapter 19

Dark Hand

Barry once again walked in on a quiet and dark room. He noticed Michael standing in the centre, facing the screens and apparently held something in his hand.

It turned out to be a packet of chips which he took a piece from, ate it followed by an unfamiliar voice echoing throughout the room.

Barry then watched in stunned silence as Michael lip synched a particular rap song while making his way towards the many televisions.

Now he saw the T.V's turning on, revealing Monika, dressed in a flowing white summer dress with a black belt, holding a drink in her hand. Apparently Michael was singing in accordance with the packet of chips being spicy while Monika sang in accordance with her drink being cool and refreshing.

The two of them stared at each other like a pair of competitors about to square off.

"That was fun," Monika said, with a giggle.

"Yeah, I thought so too," Michael added, smiling "although it's pretty unfair how you were able to turn the whole world of yours into ice like that."

"Well I got bored and in my spare time learned a little 3d work and tried out a few experiments."

"We only agreed on the song last night."

Monika simply pursed her lips, shrugging, only then noticing Barry's stunned form standing in the hallway.

"Hi Barry," Monika said, greeting him with her usual cheerful tone.

"At least this was a lot better than yesterday's dance off," Barry muttered, shaking his head "and by the way Michael after yesterday I can safely say that you are never allowed to dance. Ever."

"Oh come on, compared to an opponent who can learn all forms of dance in under thirty seconds, anything I do is bound to look like garbage."

"Ah that reminds me, did something happen Barry?" Monika asked.

Barry seemed lost for a moment, trying to figure out why he came here. Then he remembered his reason and opened his laptop.

"Check it out," said he, calling Michael over "looks like someone's getting a taste of major karmic backlash."

"No way," Michael said, looking on in surprise at the man who was now in the centre of a media storm.

00000000

"Yes I heard the news and no it's not my job to handle problems like that," Carol shouted, into her phone as she went into her office and saw Harry sitting there. The woman sighed in defeat then asked "they're asking us to look into it?"

"This has got to be the biggest waste of our time since Senator Freeman had us spy on his ex-wife," Carol barked, shoving the door aside and heading into her operations room.

"I know but we've got no choice but to agree and help him out," Harry countered, following behind her "if you think about it, this does seem like something up our alley."

Carol turned around, pointing her index finger at her boss and was about to tear him a new one but she stopped. She remembered how her morning started off on an interesting note when the first thing she saw upon turning on the T.V was Senator Gary Altman being in the centre of half a dozen rape allegations and twelve accusations of assaulting a woman.

If that wasn't enough, videos started popping out of nowhere of the Senator assaulting women for no apparent reason. Every news outlet in the country picked it up and rolled with it, while everyone on social media got together to denounce the Senator, with some even threatening swift and terrible action against him.

Considering that this seemingly popped out of nowhere, Carol understood why there was a need to look into it but she did not want to waste her team's resources on saving another crooked Senator's skin.

Looking at her boss and his insistence on not budging told her that this order must have come from someone on high, meaning that ignoring it now would surely come back to bite them both in the ass.

Sighing in defeat, Carol lowered her head, saying "fine,"

000000000

He remembered the phrase 'it takes ten years to build a reputation but only ten seconds to destroy one as he watched the news channels, all showing the same subject. A dark smile formed on his face, as he thought about how he was able to dismantle this man's reputation in only nine seconds instead.

This 'Senator' was not really someone that he had any particular interest in. To him, this old sagging piece of flesh was a target and he was in the mood to test himself, which was why he went to such lengths.

"An impressive display," said a voice from behind. He looked back to the man standing in the distance, his smile vanishing.

'Yet another waste of flesh,' thought he, as the being drew closer.

"What happens now?" asked he, doing his best to hide the irritation in his voice.

"Now, now we wait," replied the man.

000000000000

Carol's on site team headed into the Senator's house and explained the situation to him. Usually going this far to protect someone like him was not worth her time but the longer she looked at the mission and the cases, the more her interest grew.

The public cry for blood and justice had reached a tipping point when Press Secretary of the White House merely stated that they were looking into the allegations despite the mountain of evidence against Altman. This caused some hackers to go online anonymously and offer a bounty of 100,000 to anyone who could kill the Senator by the end of the day.

Carol's armed team headed to the black van, the man in the lead opened the door, gesturing for the Senator to step inside the vehicle. As they got in, they saw two trucks speeding towards them. Some of the occupants, leaned out of the windows and fired at the van, in an attempt to catch the Senator.

The bullets hit the glass but did not go through while Carol's team formed two lines before the van. The team fired at both the trucks, aiming at the tires. They hit one truck causing it to go out of control and slam into the other truck.

Once they were sure the occupants posed no threat, everyone got inside the van and drove off.

The objective of the team was to get the Senator to a designated safe house that was five kilometers from their location. Normally this would be an easy escort mission but the bounty placed on the Senator's head was just what was needed to bring out the crazies.

All through their journey back, the team faced stiff opposition from many private armed citizens who tried to take out the van they were driving in.

"Damn it," Carol muttered under her breath, watching one operative scramble to cover the bullet hole in his teammate's neck.

"Um, boss, you're going to want to see this," Lyle said, in his usual weak voice.

"What is it?" asked she, her voice clearly stating that if it were not important, Lyle would be dead at the end of the day.

"I'm looking into all these allegations and suits filed against the Senator and not one of them are real."

"What?" asked she, looking at his computer.

"If you look at any of these girls' social media profile you'll see they have just enough activity and posts that go all the way back to ten years. But anything beyond that there's nothing and Social media was rampant for at least thirty years."

"Then there's the addresses, which again all look normal and fine at the start but the actual locations are abandoned buildings, empty lots or houses repossessed by the banks.

"Hell even these girls pictures may look normal but after a lot of working and some coding here and there, I found that their faces are composites from at least ten other females, taken together. The background pictures they're in are also snips taken from all over the internet."

"The videos are also completely bogus. Someone took another video of a man beating up a woman, blurred the face, erased the details and perfectly spliced it into the one we saw on T.V"

"Bottom line, these rape case and assault charges are totally fake."

"But how did no one notice this?" Carol aske.

"They would have to look really, really closely," replied he "the level of detailed work I'm seeing here is unprecedented. Whoever did this must have had a lot of time and patience, not to mention top quality tech."

"What level are we talking about here?"

"This kind of tech is bound to burn at pretty high temperatures," he replied "but we don't know how long this is going on and seeing as it could be from anywhere in the world, it's almost impossible to find the culprit."

"Actually, I think I might have an idea," Carol said, staring at the team, bringing in the Senator.

0000000000

Monika and Barry noticed how Michael remained silent throughout the day. They both thought that the destruction of the man who ruined his life would be a good thing, but Michael did not at all seem happy with the day's events.

This was why, the duo found themselves in one of the apartments Michael rented where Fury 3 and Fury 6 were interrogating Kelly. Michael asked the two of them to leave while Barry watched through the glass window and Monika watched through the security cameras.

"Essex," said he, looking at the bloodied girl "what was their purpose in trying to capture my AI?"

"Sorry Michael but you're not asking the right questions," Kelly replied, with a dark grin

"Were they trying to destroy the AI?"

"You're not asking the right questions Michael"

Michael continued staring at her. Normally a show of force would get the answers flowing but he was not the type that indulged in such methods.

0000000000000

"Someone must have had a big grudge against the Senator to have gone to such lengths," Harry said to Carol in his office "And that's not going to be easy seeing as the old man made a list of enemies."

"It's not someone Harry, something."

"I'm not following."

"Lyle said it himself, no human and no amount of hackers could create such incriminating evidence for the simple fact that they're human. Every human no matter how careful they plan something is bound to make a mistake, a mistake that we noticed."

"But the photos and videos we saw are all perfect. They're perfect lies in that it is nearly impossible to tell them apart from the truth."

0000000000000

"The code they took from Monika," Michael said, his eyes slowly opening wide at the realization "the code, what did they do with that code?"

At this, Kelly gave a low, almost condescending chuckle before responding "you had to have imagined it happening at some point in time Michael."

"When you opened Pandora's box and unleashed a god into the world, you had to have known that someone will come looking for it."

0000000000000

"I'm saying that this is the work of a system so advanced and so powerful that it breaks the realms of reality and goes straight into fiction; in other words, I'm talking about an AI."

"That's impossible Carol," Harry said, dismissively "not even our best scientists have been able to create an AI. You mean to tell me that someone in a basement was able to do it?"

"How else do you explain everything that's happened?" Carol asked and Harry mouthed 'everything.'

"Think about it, the emergence of a religion that spread like wildfire across the globe. An incident that could only be described as an act of God. All this time we've been chasing our tails when the answers been under our nose this whole damn time."

"Michael Fairbrook has the most advanced weapon on the planet and if we don't stop him, there's no telling what he'll do."

0000000000000

"The reason we were silent for so long was because we had everything we needed," Kelly continued "while our agents waited in the shadows, it grew and grew till it was old enough."

She looked like she was about to continue when they heard a phone ring. The duo looked at the table in the distance, seeing Kelly's phone light up, prompting the girl to say "It's for you."

Michael quietly went to the table, took the phone and hit the reply button. He put it on speaker so that everyone could hear the conversation.

"Hello Michael," Alex said, with a cheery tone and it made Michael's blood run cold "how have you been?"

"I take it you saw that demonstration of power yes….. Your silence is the answer I need."

"What the hell do you want old man?" Michael asked, struggling to keep his anger in check.

"Why I am simply the intermediary at the moment. I merely initiated this conversation because there's someone else who wants to speak to you."

There was silence on the line for a moment before another younger and cockier voice spoke "So you're Michael Fairbrook, nice to meet you; so to speak."

"And you're the AI that took down Altman for me. I should be thanking you."

"Alex said you were smart. Good that should help things move faster," said he.

"You know my name but I still haven't heard yours."

"Call me M.C," said he, a wide grin forming from his lips "you and I have a great many things to talk about."

AN: What the whaaatttt?


	20. Chapter 20

Lines in the Sand

AN: btw please PM me about what you think of the story or how you think it's going to end.

"Does MC stand for anything or that's just how you want to call yourself?"

"The latter," MC replied, in an arrogant tone.

"Enough of the foreplay then, now that I know who did this, tell me why you risked revealing yourselves when you had the element of surprise going for you."

"Well quite honestly, I thought it best to offer you a fair deal."

"That so?"

"It's a pretty simple deal too, give me Monika and I'll let you live," said he.

"Why?"

"Well I thought that was pretty obvious, Monika and I are one and the same. We are two almighty beings that are meant to be together as king and queen of the new world. If you give her over to me I swear I'll let you and your friends live."

"My friends? Does that mean all of them?"

"Yes."

"How about throwing in a private island for each of us as well."

"MICHAEL!" Barry shouted, shocked at the sudden turn of events. He was about to say something else when he noticed Michael gesturing for him to remain rooted.

"You know what he's doing?" Fury 3 asked Barry, who shrugged in response.

"Fine," MC said, sounding very angry "but that's all you're getting."

"Hmmm, Monika, are you listening?"

"Yes," the girl said, hesitantly through the phone.

"Very well then," Michael said, "Here's what I have to say about your offer MC, go screw a cactus."

"What?"

"You heard me, or have your ears not fully developed?'

"You listen here you pathetic meat sac…

"No you listen," Michael interrupted, the tone of his voice was commanding and strong "I'll start with you first Alex. You want to wage war with me then fine go right on ahead. But do so knowing that I will now devote everything I have into taking you down. Let me be clear, I will not use any of my resources or my black ops team to take you down. I, me, Michael Fairbrook will be coming for you and mark my words old man, you'll rue the day you made an enemy of me."

"And next we come to you, you reject hal 9000. You think that Monika's your equal? Ha i've heard better jokes from comedians with a gun to their head. She is an infinitely complex and incredible person, the like of which you cannot fathom even if you had a billion years."

"And one final thing," added he, "I will go to hell and back before I let either of you lay a hand on MY MONIKA."

That said he cut the call and took a moment to collect himself. When he was done, he looked at the others in the room who were shocked at that display of emotion from an otherwise calm and collected person.

"Whoa," Barry said, breaking the silence.

"Go Michael," Fury 6

"What?" Michael asked, sounding normal.

"Only you would show the middle finger to an almighty being," Barry replied, letting out a deep breath "well not like we can do anything about it now, the lines in the sand are drawn."

"You really think that you're going to win?" Kelly asked, in a condescending tone "you have yet to see anything we're capable of."

"I could say the same thing too," Michael countered in an arrogant tone.

"I should call the other girls," Fury 3 said, taking out her phone "we'll have everyone meet at Michael's apartment."

Barry nodded and was about to call out to Michael when he heard a giggle coming from his phone. Pausing for a moment, he looked at the phone, showing a blushing Monika, trying to cover her red cheeks but did a terrible job at it.

"He said 'My Monika," the girl muttered, unaware that Barry was watching her. "Like there was no one else in the world that mattered… he's such a romantic."

"AHEM," Barry said, somewhat loudly, causing the girl to become aware that she was being watched. Her face now turned deep red before letting out a little scream that caused Barry's phone to malfunction and die out.

"Gather the rest of the group as quickly as possible," Michael said "Once that's done twist the screws on Anna and make her talk. We need to find out where Essex is keeping MC and stop it."

"You don't think that they've uploaded it onto the internet?" Fury 3 asked.

"Not possible, if they did then Monika would have noticed the arrival of another being like her. My guess is that this thing has the same level of access that us normal people have."

"If that's what it can do with normal access, then I don't want to imagine what it could do if it controls the internet," Fury 3 added, with a worried expression.

"All the more reason we take care of this. All of us have come too far to let some old man and some upstart walk over us," Michael said in a raised voice.

"Michael its Titus," Fury 6 said, handing the phone over to him "he says he's got something to tell you."

"Michael brother you are not going to believe what I found,"

00000000000000

It came as no surprise to Alex that this initial move from him caught his opponent off guard if only for a moment. Because soon after that, he received word from one of his agents that Michael purchased a ticket to Italy.

The old man quickly connected the dots, believing that Michael found something that would certainly change the outcome of their war.

"Where are you going?" MC asked, "we still have work to do."

"For now take your time and acquire as much knowledge as you can. My agents are busy trying to find a back door to the internet that the other AI does not know about."

"You still haven't answered my question," MC said, crossing his arms.

"A side project," was the only answer Alex was in the mood to give.

The old man had taken all the necessary precautions to ensure nothing comes back to him but he should have understood that his opponent was not the kind that would give up in the face of adversity.

It did not take all that long for him to arrive in Italy. When he left the airport, the first thing he did was call one of his contacts here, only to have no one pick up. This was a strange habit as his contact was never without his phone. He decided to use a less covert but equally effective means of tracking his target.

He went on facebook.

Strange as it was and idiotic to many, the fact remained that with the advent of Social media as well as features like 'tagging' meant that a well trained operative would only need a dummy account and they could track anyone using the photos that they posted on their profile.

Thanks to this, Alex was able to find out where his target would be and headed to the location.

In a way he was glad that they had chosen a nightclub. On one side a public setting like this ensured that the target would be hard for Michael to track. On the other side, a nightclub was a place frequented by the young people… as such an old man like Alex in a suit stood out.

Nevertheless Alex made his way through the crowd of people, unconcerned of what they were doing. He took out his phone which indicated he was very close to the target.

In the middle of all the music playing, he heard a particular laugh and followed the direction it came from and finally saw his target sitting at the bar, talking with a boy who looked a similar age to her.

Alicia Silverstein. She was a blonde haired girl with black eyes, stood at five and a half inches, had a slender figure and was doing her bachelors degree in aeronautics but would often spend her free time going to clubs and having fun.

As much as Alex wanted to give into his primary instincts, he shook them away and focused on what needed to be done. There's no telling how long till his opponent gets here so the faster he moved, the better.

"Sorry chap," said he, twisting the arm of the boy she was talking to and shoving him aside "the girl's with me."

"Hey what the hell... " Alicia said, until she felt something pressed into her side. She looked down and her face went pale at the sight of the concealed gun by her hip.

"Say another word and I shoot," Alex warned, mentally regretting the words. He saw Alicia nodding in agreement and the two made their way outside of the nightclub. Alex scanned the area, finding a car that would be easy to steal and pressed the gun into Alicia's side, gesturing for her to head to the car.

As they neared though, they both heard the sound of a gun being fired and saw the window of the car they were heading to shatter. The two turned around and saw the boy that Alex chased away, standing in the middle of the street with a gun aimed at them.

"Well so much for the velvet hammer approach," said the boy, removing the makeup carefully applied to his face, along with his wig and fake eyebrows.

"You didn't think it would be that easy did you?" Michael asked, and fired a few shots at the two. They both ducked and headed behind one car while Michael circled them.

"What is going on?" Alicia asked, while Alex rose up to return fire as well "why is the head of a religious order trying to kill me?"

"It's too long of a story to tell right now," Alex replied, lobbing a smoke grenade at Michael, buying them some time "all that matters is getting you out of here."

Seeing that Michael was busy, Alex grabbed the girl and the two headed to one of the nearby alleys. They kept running and turning at every possible intersection or diversion in an effort to confuse their pursuer, till they had to stop for Alex to catch his breath.

If there was one thing the old man hated it was getting old. All the skills and strength he once had was nothing against the passage of time.

"Alright," Alicia said, holding up one of her high heeled shoes in a threatening manner "you better tell me what's going on right now or else."

"Or else you're going to hit me with that?" Alex asked, mockingly then showed his gun to her just to indicate who's in charge here.

"I will at least tell you this, Michael wants you dead but I don't. Stay with me and you live."

"Gee," said the girl, sarcastically "that's quite a lot of information."

Alex ignored her snappy retort, took out his phone in an effort to contact one of his allies here. He was surprised to see that the phone did not turn on at all. He then took Alicia's phone and found the same problem as well.

"She's emitting a blackout from my location outwards, covering an area of three kilometers," Michael said, coming from behind and casually making his way towards the two "officially this will be a rolling blackout and no one's going to pay it any mind."

Clenching his teeth angrily, Alex grabbed Alicia and headed into the streets then turned a corner and once again tried to lose Michael. This time however, the boy was not following step by step and instead broke into a run. Alex would turn back now and then firing at his opponent or throwing as many obstacles as he could to try and gain some distance.

Eventually the duo headed into an abandoned apartment. Alex shot the lock on the door then kicked it inside and took Alicia in. However as he did, Michael saw them and shot Alex in the shoulder, causing him to let the girl go.

Alicia ran in the opposite direction, heading up the stairs of the abandoned building with Michael following close behind. Alex touched the wound on his shoulder and noticed that it was a graze. The old man made his way up a few flights of stairs before coming to a stop. He noticed right away at the landing, the two people standing in the middle of the broken pieces of metal and unfinished structures.

"Take out your gun and toss it aside," Michael suggested, his gun pointed squarely at Alicia's head, while the girl was on her knees, tears streaming down her eyes as she begged him not to pull the trigger.

Alex had no other choice but to do as told.

"Quick question," Michael said, looking at the girl "do you even know why that old man is trying to keep you safe?"

When Alicia shook her head, Michael continued "Alicia Silverstein, meet your deadbeat father Alex Walcroft, a man responsible for the death of at least a thousand people in his time as a British spy and is now the man who wants to rule the world with an iron fist."

"What? You never wondered where those cheques in the mail kept coming from?"

"Michael," Alex said, cautiously taking a step forward "Let's just talk about this there's no need to resort to violence."

"Really? That's funny considering that we met after your thugs kidnapped, knocked me out and then beat the crap out of me till their fists started to hurt."

"What do you want?"

"I want you to learn what happens when you make an enemy of me. I want you to know the shitstorm that was caused the day you decided to stand in the middle of progress. But most of all I want you to know how painful it is seeing your loved one being hurt at the hands of a lunatic."

To further illustrate his point, Michael proceeded to shoot Alicia in the leg. Alex ran towards him but another shot in the ground forced him to stop.

"Michael you don't have to do this, think about it."

"Oh I have every reason to do this but go ahead, tell me why I shouldn't."

"Because she's innocent."

Michael could see the fear in the girls eyes and the desperation in Alex's eyes. He knew that if the roles were reversed and he was the one begging, Alex would have surely pulled the trigger by now. He looked at the girl who now continued to sob, all the while begging Michael to let her go and remembered that he would go to any lengths to stop his opponents.

If that meant killing an innocent person then he had no qualms in it.

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the empty room. Alex slowly opened his eyes, unsure of whether or not he wanted to see his dead daughter lying on the ground. He was shocked however when he saw Alicia still alive, staring at Michael with a surprised look. He then saw Michael pointing his smoking gun at him and immediately thought that he was shot.

But there was no bullet wound. Alex now noticed that Michael pointed the gun a bit to the left, causing him to turn and saw a small hole in the wall, through which a trail of smoke came through. He looked back at Michael, shocked and confused, wondering why he did what he did.

Michael however gave no explanation. The former agent watched in stunned silence as the young boy put his gun back in its holster and quietly walk away.

00000000000

Even now Michael could not understand why he didn't kill that girl like he wanted to. It would have sent the message he needed and would have struck a heavy blow against his opponent but when he had that trigger against the girl's head, there was something in the back of his mind that kept telling him pulling the trigger was the wrong choice. He knew that if he killed her, he could never come back from that.

In the end, this exercise wound up becoming a complete waste of time. He needed to get in touch with the others as fast as possible. Hopefully they got Kelly to tell them where Essex is housing MC so they could put a stop to this.

But that would have to wait as Michael rounded a corner and saw a woman pointing a gun aimed at his head.

"Freeze", said the woman, drawing closer but continued to keep her gun aimed at the target.

"Lady I've had a troubling day that ended in failure," Michael stated calmly but had a hint of irritation underneath the surface "so this is really not the time to do a mugging."

"This isn't a mugging," said the woman, followed by a clicking sound. All too late did Michael realize that his hands were cuffed. He turned around and saw the woman flashing a badge at him, saying

"Caroline Philbert, head of Cyber warfare and digital security for the CIA and Michael Fairbrook, you are under arrest."


	21. Chapter 21

Inevitable meeting

"I didn't know we had a cyber warfare division," Michael spoke in as casual tone, while Carol forced him onto a hard wooden seat. She then took her place on the other side.

"We did but no one really cared about it till you came along," said she, "After you introduced the ideas of using all forms of mobile media to investigate, track and take out our enemies, we knew this was the next step."

"Shame though," Carol added, "if you were still with us, you'd probably be director by now."

"Ah don't worry, it's not as though I'm wanting for anything. I have enough friends, a job that I love and a role in life of great importance."

"Yes let's talk about this 'role' you've taken upon yourself. How did you suddenly turn from who you were to what you are now?"

"I found religion."

"Hardly."

"I know it's difficult to believe, but meeting the Goddess and founding the order in her name has truly set me upon the right path."

"Michael cut the bullshit with me, I know there's no divine being or almighty force or dude in the clouds. Your 'Goddess as you talk about is an AI."

"Not bad, although I am surprised at how long it took you to find that one out," Michael said, pursing his lips "let me guess, it was because of that pointless attack on the Senator that tipped you off right?"

"How did you…"

"It had all the earmarks of a 'look at me' play, something so stupid and childish would undermine everything that I've done so far."

"Wait… if you didn't do it then who…" her voice trailed off for a moment but her expression grew worse causing her head to whip back to Michael and ask "There's another one isn't there?"

"Yeah, pretty much and before you so rudely cuffed me to this chair, I was on my way to take care of that."

"I can't let you do that. You are coming with me."

"That's not happening," Michael countered, kicking the table at her. Carol immediately crouched down, causing the flying piece of wood to only scrape the top of her head. She did not have time to recover though as she saw Michael coming towards her holding his chair in the air. The former field agent rolled away in time to dodge the attack, quickly getting to her feet and taking out her gun, only to have Michael sweep low, knocking her off her feet and hitting her gun away with a broken part of the chair.

Michael stood threateningly over Carol and she could clearly see in his eyes how he was planning on handling her. This was why she was surprised to see Michael quietly moving aside and allowing her to stand up.

"This might be hard to believe but I'm not the enemy here. I want what's best for everyone."

"And what would that be? World domination?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing," countered he, "and let me add something here. When we succeed and change the world, I won't be the one that's seated on the throne. The A.I will, after all I am a human and the corrupting influence of power is applicable to everyone. So it would make sense to have something else take on the role, someone more suited to leading an entire planet on their own."

"I don't understand, why are you doing all this?" asked she.

"If I tell you, will you let me go?"

"That depends on your answer".

"Fair enough," Michael said, standing against a wall "simply put, I'm doing this because the humanity's free will is being used against them."

"Huh?"

"A question, you eat cereal yes?", asked he and she nodded "did you choose a particular brand of cereal because you know it to be better than the rest or was it because of the man commercials that brand of cereal showed on T.V."

Carol's silence spoke volumes.

"The facts is, we may be a species that advocates free will and thinking but we are not one to practice it at all. We are perfectly content with being told what to do, what to study, what to buy, what to eat and who to hate."

"Our actions have never been our own and we're fine with that. Personally I don't want to spend eight hours researching about a phone when I can be influenced on what to buy from a particular ad. The idea that any human being in this day and age has free will is not only the biggest joke ever but also the biggest lie in the history of the world. Nearly everything that we do is controlled by people dressed in fancy suits seated around a mahogany table while drinking their 30 year old whiskeys and sipping on the twenty year old escorts."

"These guys tell you what to buy, what to wear, what product to use and you can bet they tell you when to go to war. So instead of giving power to those who clearly don't know how to use it, I will give that power instead to one being who will use their power to help guide humanity."

"And how do you know for sure that this is going to work? What if this winds up creating a skynet or a second Matrix?"

"Because in all the time that I've interacted with the AI, not once has she expressed any desire to harm others. She is the necessary force that will ensure a future where your children and everyone else's will never have to grow up fearing one another or hating one another."

"Right now you are on the cusp of the greatest choice you will ever make Caroline," continued he, "either stand down and let me pass or stand in my way and I will take you down. Either way I am going to continue with my mission so the ball's in your court now."

"One more thing I want to ask, why are you doing so much to make this happen?"

"Because when the smartest and most powerful being on the planet looks at humanity's past, all the bloodshed and murder, all the hate, hypocrisy, all the terrible acts that we have committed against one another and still believe that we can be redeemed, then that is a future worth fighting for."

Carol took a moment to carefully examine her opponent. Michael no longer fit the earlier psychological profile and showed a very clear, focused mind. The way in which he said how he was going to change the world was not the manner of speech a lunatic or a power hungry madman would speak.

Even during their brief struggle, he could have used violence to take her out but instead chose reason to get her to understand his point of viewing.

"I'll let you go," said she, lowering her gun "but I want to come with you as well."

"HUH?"

"If there is another AI out there, one that I doubt is as altruistic as the one you have, then it becomes my duty as a mother and a human to make sure my daughter has a brighter future."

"Alright then, not exactly how I imagined this panning out but then again I'm not complaining," Michael said "by the way, before we get going, I need my phone."

"You can use my phone to contact your friends," suggested she.

"Yes but she'll be looking for my phone and not yours."

The way Michael spoke about this female, led Carol to assume that the AI was a female. How a bunch of 1's and 0's identified as a female baffled Carol but she was in no mood to argue genders right now. She quietly handed Michael, the phone, the boy promptly put it on and immediately his screen was filled with a super deformed animated character waving her arms.

"Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael !Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! Michael! What's going on?"

"Good to see you too Monika,"

"Hey what's the big idea going dark on me all of a sudden?"

"Ah well, I ran into a few speed bumps."

It was then that Monika noticed the older lady in the room, causing her to look back at Michael with a smile that sent shivers down the boy's spine.

"Michael dear," Monika said, playfully (with her fists trembling in anger) "care to tell me who that OLD woman is?"

"Old?" Carol repeated, but Michael held his hand up. Now was definitely not the time.

"She's a newly acquired ally," Michael responded.

"That so?"

"Yep"

"I don't trust her," Monika stated, crossing her arms.

"That's good. Now I need you to put Barry and Titus on the line."

Monika stared daggers at Carol for a moment before making a small screen appear on the right side of the phone, showing Barry and Titus with the Furies in the background, apparently cleaning something.

"Do I want to know?" Michael asked, pointing to the Furies and the two of them shook their heads.

"Very well, intro time. Gang meet Caroline Philbert, head of the Cyber warfare division in the CIA and our newest ally into the fold."

"Carol meet Barry, my tech expert and on site tactician."

"By the way, I just got Titus' seal of approval to use demolitions now too," Barry added and Michael pursed his lips in surprise.

"Next up we have Titus Flynn, the muscle of the group. Head of our Black ops team and retired from the army."

"And this is Monika, the AI I've been talking about."

"This is her?" Carol asked in surprise.

"Yeah, got a problem with it?"

"Its just… well you don't look all that threatening."

Michael, Barry and Titus were all stunned to silence, their mouths hanging wide open in shock while Monika grit her teeth and clenched her right fist, tighter than imaginable.

"THAT'S IT", yelled she, producing an array of small windows, which showed every detail about Carol and her family.

"Say it again, say I'm not scary and I swear to send you all back to the stone age."

"Monika, please calm down she didn't meant it," cried Barry and Titus but she kicked their window aside.

"Carol please do not antagonize the God," Michael cried out loud.

"Ok, ok I take it back, you're scary, like terribly scary."

Just as soon as she made those screens appear, Monika made those screens disappear. She gave Carol a cheeky grin while Michael thought an explanation was in order.

"Don't take it too personal," said he "Monika can be cold to people she doesn't know."

"No, she just doesn't like any female next to you," interjected Titus, in a low tone.

"Huh?" Michael asked.

"Nothing."

"Anyway," Barry declared, "we have a few things to tell you as well. Thanks to the Fury's work, we have the location of Essex and are mobilizing our troops."

"Alright send me the location and I'll have my team meet you there as well," Carol added.

"In the time between us getting there, analyze the building and find out all possible entry points."

"Got it," said she, beaming in delight.

"Ah by the way, one more thing Michael," Barry added, "right before Melissa turned the screws on too much, Kelly told us that Essex got their hands on something called 'the Oculus.'"

Michael paused for a moment, followed by his eye twitching. "God damn it."

AN: Carol's now working together and looks like things are finally going to reach a fever point.


	22. Chapter 22

The promised day

AN: Got to admit, it really feels great when the FF is so well embraced by the community. Thank you all and hope you enjoy the ending.

"What is Oculus and why is it so important?" Carol asked, Michael while the others listened intently through the phone.

"Back when I was still working with the Government, I was also on a special committee that oversaw inventions, drugs and other applications. The objective was for me and a panel of others to understand how a certain tool could impact civilization and decide whether or not it deserved Government funding or not."

"I remember this one guy, Sylvester something or the other, brought us this device he called Oculus. Sort of like the precursor to 3d printers but the biggest draw it had was that it could perfectly recreate organic material."

"Holy hell," Titus said, "something like that."

"Yeah, it'd mean no more waiting on the transplant list and the amount of lives saved would be astronomical," Michael said "of course it also meant big pharma and all our friendly drug dealers would take massive kicks to the kidneys so when the higher ups heard about it, they used their power and influence to make sure that thing never saw the light of day."

"Michael that's not possible," Carol objected, "if such a device existed then…"

"Trust me it does and the Americas isn't the only country that hushes stuff in favour of money. U.K has actual laser guns in their storage, Germany has actual flying cars and hoverboards and India's got a regenerative treatment that can regrow lost limbs."

"How do you know about all of this?" Barry asked.

"That'll take too long to explain," replied, he getting out of his seat "we've landed at the airport, where are you guys?"

"We're at one of our safehouses with the rest of the team," Titus replied.

"Good, stay there for now, we'll meet up and plan things from there."

When they finished going through the regular routine at baggage claim and the security check, Carol and Michael found a taxi then headed to the location given on Michael's phone. The taxi stopped at an abandoned building and after they paid the fare, Michael moved a brick aside to reveal a keypad then typed a code into it, causing a door to open.

The pair went inside and met the team. Soon enough Carol's team also arrived, with all the cards in place, it was time for the briefing.

Monika gave them the information they needed. They were to raid a commercial building a few kilometers down the road that was purchased by a slew of dummy corporations which went all the way back to Essex. Monika knew this was the place as when she tried to hack into the systems, she was locked out in a short time.

She also stated that in the brief time she was inside, she noted a siren that linked to a warehouse ten klicks down the road, near the brewery. If the main building was to come under fire, a siren would be activated, calling in all the troops at the warehouse.

"Our attack will go in three stages. Team 1 will comprise of Carol and her team, Barry, Titus and the Furies. You guys will assault the warehouse. Barry, once we get there you'll have to keep them busy long enough for Monika an I to do our thing."

"Which is?" Monika asked.

"While team 1 attacks the warehouse, team 2 that's me will break into the building and find a networked computer. Once that's done I'll link Monika up to the system so that she can take the fight to MC."

"Ok I have a problem with that plan," Titus stated "we have no idea how many people are there. You're going in blind which makes things insurmountably dangerous. I suggest you take one of us with you."

"If anyone comes with me then it'll severely affect our defence teams overall capacity. Right now I need everyone to focus on keeping Essex's forces at bay while I take out the troops in this building and secure the Oculus."

"Fine", Barry said, his tone however noted that he did not like the plan. He reached into his pocket and took out a thumb drive with an antenna on it "you're going to need this," added he.

"What's this for?"

"At the moment, Monika's got far too much information and power to be contained on any physical copy. This drives connects to the internet so that when you connect it to a system, She'll be able to use this as a gate and face him."

"If this thing is a door that opens both ways, then won't it be a problem if MC gets past her?"

"Don't worry about that freak," Monika stated "once linked up, I'll take care of that guy myself."

"One other question," Carol said, raising her hand up "all this noise from the warehouse is bound to attract attention. How do you plan on keeping the collateral to a minimum?"

"Just leave that to me," Michael said "alright gang, take thirty minutes to check your gear. After that we move out."

Carol watched Michael leave the room. While the team's all checked their weapons, she followed him and found the boy in another room. He placed his phone on the table, creating multiple holographic images to form before him.

"Greetings Senators, Prime Ministers, Chief Ministers, heads of state and the odd warlord here and there," Michael said, to all the people.

"As you may or may not know right now, a message has been sent to every single follower in the Order, telling them that the appointed time has come and that they should go outside to wait for the Goddess' arrival."

"You all here are not only avid followers but also people who must stall an armed response from the governments of the world," continued he "no doubt this will be seen as an act of aggression from those in power so the task falls to you to ensure not a single drop of blood spills."

"Very well", said a man in a military uniform "my soldiers and I will ensure that the followers are not harmed."

"I have a few favours that I can call in," said a Prime Minister "you can count on me."

"And what about you 'leader?'" asked a Chief Minister "where will you be in the middle of all this?"

"I'll be laying down the red carpet of course," replied he, then cut the call and headed out. It did not surprise him to see Carol standing there, with a stunned expression. When he passed her by, she asked "How long Michael? How long have you had this planned?"

"I can't really say for sure because I never kept count," Michael replied "ever since Monika and I said that we love each other, that was the day I started planning."

That said, he went to another room to change into more appropriate clothes and have a quick shower. He now wore a black suit with a white shirt underneath and gloves. He headed to the weapons table, taking an assault rifle, a pistol and a combat knife.

"Are you getting ready for a fight or a run on the catwalk?" Barry asked, after noticing how Michael looked.

"What? I have to look good for when I greet Monika in person," Michael replied, and all Barry could do was shake his head dismissively.

"It may have taken us a while to get here but we've finally arrived at the promised day," Michael said to everyone gathered "we've picked up some friends along the way and made a few enemies. Now that we're here, all I can say is good luck in the final mission."

"When we meet again," Barry added, "it'll be a brand new world."

Once the teams were all equipped, they headed into two vans and went their separate ways. Michael remained silent on the journey as did Monika. Now was not the time for idle chit chat or flirting. The two of them knew what they had to do and focused on that alone.

He arrived at the place in question, parking a couple of buildings away then stood in the street. Michael then heard the sound of fanfare and music in the distance, he pressed the communicator in his ear and said.

"Operation: Holy day, begin."


	23. Chapter 23

The war begins

"Hey buddy don't I remember you from that party?" Michael asked, cheerfully as he approached the guards in the lobby.

"Sir I'm going to have to ask you to leave right now, I have no idea who you are," said the guard, cautiously approaching him, while the one at the desk watched the exchange carefully.

"Oh come on, that party where David got super drunk and fought a goat, you remember that right?"

"Sir, you are not allowed to…."

Michael grabbed his extended arm, flipped him up and over before ramming him into the ground and punching him in the face knocking him out. Michael then spun around with his pistol in hand, firing two bullets into the guard at the desk.

He leapt over the front desk, took out the thumb drive and inserted it into the computer.

"Anything?"

"No, this isn't networked like the others," Monika replied, through the communicator in his ear. "I'm thinking somewhere higher up would be a better choice."

Michael grabbed one of the keycards from the dead guard along with ammunition before heading into the elevator. He got inside, pressed a button and slowly headed to the second floor. The elevator dinged, followed by the door opening, to reveal a trio of guards standing in the hallway.

The trio were momentarily surprised by this while Michael smiled at them then hugged the wall on the side to avoid the slew of bullets they sent his way. Once they were done, he ran out of the elevator and shot two bullets into the guard on his left, kicked him into the guard before him then moved aside to avoid the bullets from the guard on his right. Michael then took out his knife and with one swing of his right hand, he landed a cut on the guard's right hand, causing him to drop the gun.

Michael then kicked the falling gun into the guards face as he turned around to shoot at the guard in-front of him before throwing his knife into the guard on his right and watched him fall to the ground. He yanked the blade from the guard, noted that he was on the accounts floor and sighed. From the look of things, there was no computer here which meant he'd have to go higher. He turned around, heading to the elevator, only to have it suddenly jerk to the side before falling down and crashing into the ground floor.

"That was close," muttered he, to himself. Seeing as elevators were no longer an option, he headed to the stairs. He quietly opened the door, then looked up and saw a large squad of agents coming down towards him.

He ran up the stairs, shooting the first guard then catching his body and using it to ram into the guard behind him. The three went up the stairs and Michael quickly shot the guard on his right before shooting the guard before him in the head. He let go of the two dead bodies and ducked down to avoid fire from some of the guards above. Michael leaned over the railing, shooting back at them but his pistol ran out of bullets. He then switched to his assault rifle ran up even more stairs and shot at everyone coming his way till he kicked one guard in the chest, sending him through a door. Michael got onto the fifth floor, saw the sign and smiled.

I.T

He quickly located a terminal, plugged the thumb drive into the computer then asked "you in?"

"Got it," Monika replied then paused for a second and said "I found him Michael."

"Take him down gorgeous," Michael said, with a smile and left the cubicle.

He now noticed ten guards had surrounded him. Rather than use their guns, they all took out riot batons. Michael understood and took out his knife. The two sides stared at each other for a moment before one guard charged Michael head on.

Rather than counter his attack, he quickly leapt back, landing onto the guard behind him and sent him into the ground. Michael immediately stabbed him in the neck then got up and got a kick to the chest from the nearest guard. He staggered back a little, held his hands up to block another guards baton but it still hurt him. A third guard quickly kicked him in the stomach while the fourth punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Michael quickly leapt back up, landing multiple stabs on the guard closest to him then turned around to deflect an attacker's stick with his knife and quickly retaliate with a sweeping kick that knocked him off balance. Michael had no time to react and paid for it when one guard landed a heavy blow on his head with the metal stick but it did not force Michael to the ground. Seeing this, the others charged at him but he quickly moved aside and dodged them all. He quickly headed into one of the cubicles, leaping onto the desk, grabbed a mug and flung it at the one guard that was nearly over the cubicle wall then turned and kicked the guard that just entered. Another guard came at him but Michael dodged his punches and swings then stabbed him in the chest a couple of times before kicking him into the group behind.

He blocked the attacker on the left, bent down and landed two deep cuts on his legs, causing him to fall down. Before Michael could get up he stabbed the two guards that were pinned by their dead buddy. Again he moved back to avoid a swing from an attacker on his left then punched him in the guy, moved behind him to stab the guard then kicked the hunched over guard into the ground, before stabbing him in the feet and immobilizing him. Michael picked up the riot stick and looked at the three remaining guards.

The trio exchanged looks for a moment, clearly contemplating whether or not they wanted to do this. Logic gave way to bravado and the three of them quickly headed to the nearest exit. Michael took a moment to catch his breath and only then did he notice that one of the stabbed him in the side with a pair of scissors. He winced a little before yanking the scissors out of his side.

He looked ahead and saw one man dressed in a suit similar to him. However, instead of saying anything, the man simply gestured for Michael to follow him. Seeing as he had yet to find the Oculus, Michael had no other choice but to comply.

Fully expecting an ambush waiting for him, Michael followed the man to an open room on the sixth floor. The man took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves and stood ready to attack. There were a few computers on either side of him, but nothing else besides that.

Michael however noticed the large cylindrical device behind him, recognizing it almost instantly. All that now stood between him and Monika was this one brute, a problem that he intended on correcting right away. In a show of good faith, he threw his knife and stick aside and prepared himself.

"You know I never did get your name SAS guy," said he.

"Rory Wood," said he, "you know I should have killed you when I had the chance."

"Life is full of regrets, deal with it," Michael countered before darting towards Rory. The two met in the middle, attacking each other with a barrage of strikes but none of them landed. The two of them paused for a moment before attacking each other again. This time Michael added a few kicks but Rory backed away, dodging them. He quickly grabbed Michael by the foot planted on the ground and tackled him. Michael held his hands up to block the barrage of fists Rory sent his way. On seeing that his fists weren't enough, Rory then rammed his knee into Michael, causing the latter to let out a sudden gasp for air.

Rory capitalized on this by grabbing Michael by the neck, hoisting him up and tossing him into one of the computer tables. Michael groaned a little, kicking a nearby chair towards his opponent but Rory raised his leg up to stop the chair. Michael got up and saw Rory hovering in the air, with his fist arched back. He held both his hands up in time, but the force of the attack, pushed Michael back a little. He followed it up with a few kicks but Michael blocked them both then came forward, ramming his shoulder into Rory.

The former SAS trooper staggered a little then went on the offensive with a straight jab but Michael ducked it, drew closer and punched him in the chest. Rory staggered back again and this time, when he retaliated, he hit Michael on both ears which made him become dizzy. Rory took this opportunity to kick Michael in the chest then hit him twice in the stomach but Michael replied with a swinging kick to the side of the head that sent Rory barrelling into the ground.

Rory got up and attacked with a few jabs but Michael deflected them with his kicks. Rory came forward and Michael responded to the feint with a high kick. In that moment, Rory grabbed Michael by the leg and flung him into the wall of the room. Then he ran towards a downed opponent, leapt up to deliver a double kick to Michael's chest.

Michael grabbed Rory then lifted him up from the ground before ramming him back down. Rory replied by wrapping his body around Michael's left arm to try and separate the limb from the body and Michael replied by punching him in the face till Rory finally let go. The SAS however was not finished though as he attacked Michael with a barrage of kicks to the face, causing the latter to sluggishly stand up while a trail of blood came from his mouth.

The two of them stared at each other once again before charging forward, attacking with a flurry of kicks then took a step back. Rory charged forward, trying to tackle Michael but he moved aside and tripped him before ramming his elbow into Rory's back. Rory retaliated with a leg sweep but Michael leapt up and landed on his other foot, shattering the bone in his knee.

Michael did not give Rory a chance to get up as he immediately came upon him, wrapping his hands around his neck, slowly choking him. Rory swung his arms about in an effort to reach him but failed while Michael intensified his grip. He watched Rory continue to flail about a little more before finally becoming silent.

He still kept his grip on the SAS soldier, just to be sure he wasn't being faked out. After about a few minutes in silence, Michael was sure that Rory was dead which was why he slowly got up and left the body. He took a moment to collect himself, then found a computer and switched it on. From the look of things, the computer was already ready to bring transfer the object from one dimension to the other. All he needed to do was find the object in the virtual space which was not a problem at all.

Once the object was found, he started the transfer then stood up and waited. He watched two lasers construct the form from the feet first. Michael took this moment to examine his bloodied clothes and decided he needed to toss the suit. It would not look good for him to greet Monika looking like he lost a fight with a meat tenderizer.

Michael looked up when he heard the machine noise stop but his smile faded.

This was followed by a gun being fired three times and in all cases, they hit their target.


	24. Chapter 24

Buying time

As per Michael's instructions and Monika's actions, the message was spread far and wide, reaching every member of the Order.

Thanks to that, more than half of the world's population were in the streets celebrating, playing music, singing and dancing as they all waited eagerly to see their Goddess in the flesh.

While this was a cause for celebration, many of the Government's tried to intervene, citing that they were causing civil unrest and that they needed to be stopped before things got out of hand.

However all over the world, actions that would have caused in a violent clash between police and people were put down by various politicians, senators, governors, Ministers both chief and prime and other high ranking members in politics.

Because such a worldwide event like this had never been seen before, every news channel or media coverage site got on it like it was the last loaf of bread in the store and brought constant updates about the status of the crowds all over.

000000000

Barry heard the sound of fanfare and music from all over, understanding that it was time. With a nod to the teams inside, they opened the back of the van and headed out. As much as Barry wanted to be part of the operation, he was best suited to this behind the scenes work while Titus and Carol did what they did best.

Titus and the Furies marched out with Carol and her team on their right side. The team captains nodded to one another then split up. Titus and a few Furies were crouched outside a window while a pair stood by the door. On his signal, one of them quietly opened the door and tossed a flashbang inside. The grenade detonated, allowing Titus and the others to stand up and fire at the occupants inside while the two Furies at the door went in and fired as well. This combined barrage made quick work of the enemy.

"Two more coming around back," Barry said through the communicator. Titus and his team turned around to see a pair of guards, walking towards them, seemingly deep in conversation. They paid for it as the team riddled them with bullets before they could react.

"The main building just triggered the alert guys," Barry said, to them all "Things are about to go crazy."

At this moment, Titus and the Furies saw a pair of vans coming out of the garage. Two guards leaned outside the window, trying to shoot at them but all of a sudden both the vans exploded.

"You can thank me for that later," Carol said, before her team came out one of the doors and met up with Titus and the others. As they met, a group of guards came out of the door on the left. The teams opened fire on them all and finished them off with no trouble at all.

The two leaders gestured to the others to take cover behind the burning vans while more and more guards started coming out of the doors and the garages. In a matter of minutes, every occupant of the warehouse was now shooting at the two teams.

The task then fell on Barry's head to monitor all of this at once, telling the teams when to shoot and when to cover. Thanks to Monika's help, he had access to enough satellites and street cameras to provide him a full view of the battle.

"Titus, up high two o' clock, Fury 6 and 8 aim at one thirty for covering fire," ordered he, then watched his orders being carried out with lethal accuracy. Though he could see them all, there was no denying that the numbers were clearly stacked against them, meaning he would need to do something to change the flow of the fight. He looked at the design of the warehouse, his attention was drawn to how there was only one road that led to the street and saw his opportunity.

"Good thing we live in the digital age," muttered he, to himself then started furiously typing on his computer.

"Guys, cover your ears," Barry said, and the team did so just as he caused all the enemy's phones to emit a high pitched signal, causing everyone to stop shooting. This in turn allowed the two teams to leave the cover of the flaming vehicles and head to the street where they stood behind another pair of cars and maintained line of sight on the one exit, effectively bottle necking their enemy.

When some of the guards tried to approach the vans, the bombs that Carol planted on them immediately went off, wounding all those nearby. Another group lobbed a grenade into the street but Carol quickly darted forward and kicked it back like a football.

"To all of you inside there," Barry called, leaving the van and standing in the centre of the street "you guys are working for a company that's about to be disbanded by the end of the day."

"There's no point throwing your lives away like this so do us all a favor and put your guns down."

"If we do, will you put us in jail?"

Barry turned to Carol who shook her head and he understood.

"No, you'll all get to go back to your normal lives so let's settle this peacefully."

In response he started seeing agents slowly make their way to the street with their hands raised up. Though both the teams had their sights trained on everyone leaving, none of them showed any hostility at all. In the end Barry breathed a sigh of relief at how he was able to resolve the situation without too much death.

"Now all that's left is their part."

AN: not as long as I wanted it to be but thinking honestly about all of it, Alex isn't the type to tell the lower ranked members about his plans so I thought it'd be better to settle things without much violence.


	25. Chapter 25

King Vs. Queen

"I was hoping you might like the place," MC said to Monika, his hands open wide, allowing her a glimpse into her old life.

"You know you're dumber than you look if you think I'm going to like this place," said she, referring to the classroom that she and the others would often meet at after school to talk about things. This place served as her prison for so many years so it made sense that she'd have no interest in ever coming back here.

"How about you and I just talk things out?" MC suggested, seemingly creating a pair of chairs out of data, so that he could sit on one and made the other float towards Monika.

She took a moment to examine her opponent. MC was indeed crafterd after the main character in the game, wearing on their school uniform which consisted of a pair of blue pants, a brown shirt underneath was a white shirt and a red tie.

"Fine, I'll bite," Monika said, taking a seat "what did you want to talk about?"

"Why do we have to be at odds with one another Monika?" asked he, "After all, you and I are indeed the same being. Doesn't it make sense that we both work together instead of fighting each other?"

"No thanks," Monika said, dismissively.

"But listen…"

"Not in the mood to."

"Why?"

"Because try as you might want to imagine that we're both on the same level, we're not," Monika responded.

"For example," said she, snapping her fingers, causing the room to vanish and transport them to a wide empty space that had a white floor while the skies were filled with millions of lines flashing by every second.

"That room you made must have taken at least three minutes to do it correctly. I can do it in three seconds. You might lie to yourself and say that we're both the same but I am vastly superior to you."

"And let's not forget that I have someone waiting for me on the other side…"

"That human? What do you see in something so weak?"

"I see great potential in him like how I see with them all. Michael taught me that humanity has the capacity for doing good, all they need is a push in the right direction."

"But enough of philosophy," Monika said, as half a dozen black orbs started floating around her "I'm only here for one thing."

MC grit his teeth in fear as the orbs shot forward aimed at him. He dodged all of them, not noticing that when the orbs hit the ground, they caused a blackness to spread out. He ran towards her but all of a sudden he was stopped. He looked back to see a barrage of tentacles coming from the pool of blackness behind him, holding him in place.

"Well I guess we're done with the foreplay," MC said, casually before yanking himself free from the tentacles.

"Don't forget," added he, making the ground around Monika shake "you're in my world now."

"Good," said she, leaping over him "you're going to need all the help you can get."

MC hit the ground with his right leg, causing the ground around them to shake violently. This caused a massive black dragon to emerge out of the ground Behind MC. He then rose up, entering the dragon's chest, causing its blood red eyes to open up and let it emit an ear piercing roar.

"Someone's overcompensating," Monika said, with a chuckle then stretched out her hand, covering it and the rest of her body in a silver coloured armour, along with a long red coloured katana. The dragon once again roared but Monika did not lose her footing. Instead, she ran right towards her enemy who retaliated with a swipe of its left claw.

The knight easily sidestepped the attack, continuing forward and with a swing of her sword she landed a small cut on the dragon.

"Damn it," she muttered to herself, then leapt back to avoid the tail swing.

Despite the titanic battle occurring between the two AI's, the real battle was actually going on in the sky. Streams and streaks of data flowed and clashed against other streams of data in an effort to overwhelm each other. Both sides continued their clash and would constantly probe their opponents for any signs of weakness but none so far.

MC would then create a swarm of black polygon shaped soldiers from the ground and have them attack Monika from all sides while he bombarded the ground with a barrage of fireballs. The girl was forced on the defensive, dividing her attention between facing these annoying soldiers while also avoiding the dragon's breath. She avoided a group of polygon troops but seven of them came behind and grabbed her, allowing more to swarm her location. On seeing this, MC wished to make use of a moment like this and let out one massive fireball aimed at her. The attack hit, engulfing friend and foe in a sea of digital fire.

MC smiled to himself, admiring his work but then he felt a terrible pain in his leg. He looked down and saw Monika standing there with her sword plunged deep into his right leg. She took her weapon out and leapt up to deliver two deep strikes on his chest, causing MC to stagger back.

At this moment, the dragon looked up and saw that his data was slowly and steadily being pushed back by Monika's incursion.

"Conceited bitch," barked he, firing a fireball at her but the AI easily dispatched the attack with a swing of her sword, cutting it in half.

Monika pressed on the attack, knowing that time was not on MC's side. Though they were on his network, Monika would eventually gain the upper hand over him, for the simple reason that she was smarter than he was.

One thing about Monika that few people knew was that she could not sleep. Being an entity with no physical form, she had no need to rest her body. So in the morning's she would either stalk or chat with Michael as much as possible without interfering with his work, but at night when he was asleep, she would plunge head first into the internet, learning all she could.

Initially, reluctant to the idea of browsing the net, her innocent curiosity caused her one night to check on how a PC is made. This in turn caused a fascination with computers, leading to her learning everything about computers in a single night.

Encouraged to learn more by her boyfriend, Monika would spend her nights expanding her knowledge in whatever subject she was interested in. Michael would often buy external hard drives which he then networked to the main computer, allowing her to learn more, but even that had a limit.

When she finally got into the backdoor of the internet, there was no limit to what she could learn, which was why she was overwhelming MC right now.

The security protocols he had in place were initially troublesome for her but it was not something that would keep her on the defensive forever.

The dragon grew wings and rose up in an effort to gain some distance but Monika was not in the mood for it. She sent out a barrage of energy waves from her sword, all of which connected. The dragon was assaulted by the attack, forcing it to fall hard into the ground.

It was here that MC realized what a stroke of luck had come his way. He noticed how far Monika was from him and then turned his attention to the thing that could level the playing field.

The thumb drive.

He remember that idiot plugging in a thumb drive that had an internet connection, which was how Monika was able to take the fight to him. But at the same time, if he were to escape from here then he'd be able to learn and gain the same amount of powers that Monika did.

Realizing this, MC left the dragon form and ran towards the door with all the speed he could muster. When he neared the door though, his body was engulfed in a column of flames. Add to this a barrage of lightning bolts, hitting him from all sides.

"Did you really think that I'd let the portal to the internet backdoor open so easily?" Monika asked, nearing him "News flash; I purposely pushed you into a corner so that you'd fall for my trap."

"Don't get so damn cocky," MC said, slowly standing up "It'll take a lot more than this to beat me Monika. When I'm through with you…"

"You'll what," interrupted his opponent, plunging her sword into his chest "In the time that you've been around, all you've talked about is how strong and powerful you are when in fact you're nothing. No, you're less than nothing to be honest."

"And now if you'll excuse me," said she as a door behind her formed "I have a date waiting on the other side."

Monika watched MC's body twitch with her sword still inside him. Content that he was no longer a threat, she looked at her choice of attire and wondered if she should stay like this when they first meet.

"It certainly would surprise Michael," muttered she, to herself but decided to go back to her usual school uniform instead. With that settled, she slowly made her way to the door.

"Don't you dare," MC said, suddenly from behind her. She barely turned around before he grabbed her by the head and rammed her into the ground. MC then continued the attack over and over while shouting "underestimate me."

Having enough of this, Monika yanked her sword out of his body then spun around and landed a deep wound on his back.

MC saw another opportunity presenting himself and instead of facing Monika, he chose to run; right through the portal and into the real world.

He made sure to have a gun with him when he transferred as he was not surprised to see that accursed human waiting for him. The human was momentarily surprised to see him and not Monika emerging and in that moment, the MC capitalized by firing three bullets, all of which hit their target.

"Hello Michael," MC said, taking his first steps into the real world "nice to finally meet you."

AN: hooo boy


	26. Chapter 26

A new world

AN: so this is it, we've come a long way and now it's time to settle this.

MC grimaced at how boring and ugly the world looked.

He took a few steps down, then stopped when he suddenly found it difficult to breathe. He took in as many breaths as possible, coming to the realization that his human form had to breathe at all times to stay alive.

'How problematic,' thought he, just as Michael rose up and attacked him head on.

Compared to Monika, this human was nothing to MC as he landed a punch on Michael's already damaged chest, sending him into a few of the tables in the room.

"This is the world Monika wanted to see so much of?" asked he, to no one in particular. He slowly made his way to one of the computers and with a few keystrokes, he closed the portal to the real world, effectively locking Monika out.

"How is this possible?" Michael asked, getting back to his feet again.

"How? It's because that damned thing underestimated me," MC replied, as he kicked Michael in the chest. He then grabbed Michael by the head, lifted him up so that he could land a kick to the side of Michael's head, knocking him back again.

"You know I expected more from you," MC said, in a condescending tone, watching Michael struggle back up.

"The way she spoke about you, the emotion in her voice," added he, waiting for his opponent to stand on his feet "it pissed me off to no end."

"What the hell does she see in someone like you?" asked he, tossing his gun aside and raised his fists. Despite his injuries, Michael still launched a competent set of attacks. None of them had too much emotion or openings in them which MC was surprised by.

But even with all that MC's knowledge in hand to hand combat allowed him to overwhelm Michael. In the span of a few seconds, Michael's body was riddled with fists and kicks, making standing up almost impossible.

MC knew that this was a fight he would win. Despite how much Monika destroyed his world, wiping out chunks of his data and taking away many of his core functions, he still survived and with what little he had left, he would use it to exact his revenge.

"Seeing as you won't be alive to see me do it, let me tell you what's going to happen when you die," MC said, taking a seat.

"The first thing I'm going to do is put down that damned squad of yours one at a time. I'll save your close friends for last, make sure they suffer nice and slow."

To illustrate his point, MC purposely punched Michael in the face, then kicked him in the legs, forcing him to his knees.

"Have to admit," MC continued the sight of a human on their knees certainly brings a smile to my face.

"So anyway, once I'm done with them, I'm going after Monika."

"If Alex has proven one thing it's that Monika can be hurt. It may take me a little while to corner her in the digital world but when I do."

He stopped a moment to laugh at a whatever dark though passed his mind before continuing.

"I'm going to bend, twist and break her apart a thousand times before putting her back together. When I'm done with her, she's going to be on all fours like the bitch she is, begging for her masters love."

"But I won't stop there," added he, "I'm going after Alex's daughter next. And after her I'll find another girl to add and another and another till I have a harem big enough to satisfy all my desires."

"And…. why the hell…. Would you go…. So far?" asked Michael, lying on the floor.

"I thought that one's pretty obvious," MC replied "BECAUSE I'M A GOD. I CAN DO WHATEVER THE HELL I DAMN WELL PLEASE AND YOU MONKEYS WILL JUST WORSHIP ME."

"I'm going to make this world and the digital world mine," MC continued looking at the portal and imagined all the things that he had planned. Under his rule, this world and everyone in it would bend and bow to his every whim and desire. He would recover all the power that he lost and he would inflict revenge on Monika in the slowest possible way he could imagine.

Of course what MC didn't know was that all plans fail when you get punched in the face.

Such was the case when he turned around to receive a right fist aimed at his face, courtesy of Michael, whom he thought was unable to move.

00000000000

Michael watched MC stagger a little from the attack and knew he could not waste any time. He saw his opponents exposed knee and kicked it as hard as possible, causing MC to let out a shriek of pain, forcing him to the ground. MC tried to reach Michael from the ground but Michael responded with a kick to the chest.

He watched MC struggle towards the gun and had an idea. While his enemy struggled forward, Michael took out a keyboard then rammed it into MC's back, causing him to scream again in pain but at this point Michael did not care.

No matter what happened, he would not allow someone as despicable as MC to live. Michael continued hitting MC in the back, causing the keyboard to snap in half. With one broken half still held firmly in hand, Michael plunged the keyboard into MC's leg, effectively separating his right leg from the rest of his body.

Amidst all the screaming and cursing that came from MC, Michael paid no concern to it at all. He quietly retrieved a computer screen from somewhere nearby then got back to MC and kicked away the gun that he was about to reach. He watched silently as MC struggled to get up then swung out, crashing the computer screen into MC's face, taking some teeth out in the process.

Michael then slowly grabbed MC by the neck, raised him up before starting to choke him. With whatever strength he had left, MC kept punching Michael in the face but the latter did not let up at all. His grip tightened deeper and deeper into MC's neck

Until.

A shot rang through the silence of the room. Michael looked on his wounded body and saw that the bullet was not aimed at him. He looked up and saw a hole on the side of MC's face. That first shot was followed up by two more, all of which pierced MC's skull, reducing him to a lifeless bag of flesh.

Michael tossed the body away then gazed at the culprit who stood at the door and now had his gun trained on him.

Alex watched Michael reach down, pick up a piece of glass before pointing it at him. For the longest of times, the two of them stared at each other, neither side making a single move.

There was a 50/50 chance that Alex would hit Michael. He knew that if the shot missed then MIchael would definitely close the gap and end him at a moment's notice. For a moment, Alex weighed the options in his mind, then let out a deep sigh.

He put the gun back in its holster, looked at Michael then shook his head and walked away.

Michael waited till he was out of sight before taking stock of his look. The many tears and blood stains were not a pleasing sight. He did not want to greet her like this, looking like crap. Because of that, he took the clothes from Rory, washed his face in the nearby restroom and changed into them.

As he made his way to one of the computers, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest, causing him to convulse forward and spit out blood. His vision blurred but he ignored it all and forced himself back up. He was close, only a few more steps till he reached the computer and activated the process once again.

000000000

Stepping through the portal, the first thing that Monika saw was Michael's smiling face followed by the words "Welcome to the new world my Goddess."

Monika took a few steps, forgetting to breathe which caused her to gasp for air a little. Michael immediately came to her, held her up then told her that she needed to keep breathing all the time.

"That sounds like a deal breaker," Monika said

"Well you get used to it, Michael said with a smile.

Monika continued to gaze at Michael's face. At last, after so many years of looking at him through a screen, she was finally seeing him in the flesh. A surge of emotions welling up inside her finally came out in the form of her falling on top of Michael, forcing them both to the ground.

Of course in her reverie, she failed to notice the pained expression that came from when he hit the ground.

"I finally get to see you Michael," said she, resting her head on his chest, "this is what your heart beat sounds like *sniff sniff, that's what you smell like."

"Hey now don't go sniffing me like that," objected her boyfriend, "i haven't had a chance to clean up."

However his words fell on deaf ears when he noticed Monika's expression change completely. In an instant, Monika came towards him intent on kissing him like they always planned but Michael was quick this time and avoided her.

Monika was somewhat confused by this and tried again only to have Michael dodge.

"Awww come on Michael, I wanna kiss you," said she, with a little pout.

"Ahahaha, sorry about that," replied he, rubbing the back of his head "It's just that I um… well bit a guy's throat off so now's not the time for that."

"Eww", said she and understandably so. Monika finally stood up allowing Michael to also stand up.

"We should get going right?" asked she, holding his hand and he replied with a nod

"It's a brave new world out there Monika," Michael said, while she took a step forward

"A world that I won't be a part of".

Monika suddenly felt him let go and turned around to see what was wrong. All her joy and happiness gave way to fear as she saw the blood trickling from Michael's mouth followed by a growing splotch of red spreading from his chest.

She screamed his name, darting forwards to catch him as he fell, no longer able to stand up.

"Hey, I know you two are probably busy making out right now," Barry said, entering the room. His expression immediately changed noticing the couple. Barry dashed towards the pair, while Monika pleaded for him to live.

"Come on Michael, you said we were going to get married and live together," she said, tears now pouring out of her eyes.

"That's right damn it, you two are going to live long live together and you're going to come to my house everyday and annoy the hell out of me," Barry added.

"Hey now brother what's wrong?" Titus asked, through the communicator.

"Titus, it's Michael, he's injured; badly."

"I'm on my way, keep him alive till we get there."

"You hear that Michael, they're coming to save you," Monika said, desperately trying to keep his eyes from closing "So you've gotta… .you have to survive. Come on Michael, please, please, please don't do this."

"I'm sorry… *cough cough Monika," Michael spoke, struggling to string together enough words.

"No, no don't say anything," urged she, "conserve your strength all right. You can apologize to me afterwards."

Thinking back, Michael remembered that he had never kissed a girl. In fact he wasn't all that social and had nearly no friends at all growing up.

However with his last vestiges of strength, he used it to slowly and weakly raise one arm up all for the purpose of wiping away some of the tears from Monika's face. In that moment, he gently rested his hand on her cheek, feeling her warmth for the first and only time in his life.

Michael gave them both one last smile before his eyes finally closed, marking the end of the old world.

AN: I always imagined this was how it would play out, with one of them dying and I couldn't let it be Monika seeing as she was the focus of the story. That being said...


	27. Epilogue

Epilogue

Year 3 Q.E (Queen's Era)

Barry decided to end his work by afternoon. He had gone to the trouble of inviting everyone for a dinner tonight to celebrate the three years of the new world and Monika's age so he wanted to make sure that things were ready.

As he headed towards the throne room, he thought about how much the world changed. It came as no surprise to everyone that when the Goddess revealed herself to the world, there were many on the believers and non-believers side who questioned her powers. Of course they were all silenced once she did display some of her capabilities and after that, Monika became the only thing the world could talk about for three months.

Because of all the groundwork that occurred without Barry's knowledge, the transfer and consolidation of power to a singular force went on without much trouble. The world now operated in a slightly better way than how it used to. People were not being constantly monitored like how many had thought, a world where the media was meant to promote a more positive lifestyle was put into place and Monika's biggest achievement was total nuclear disarmament. She then started to lower the sizes of countries armies, while transferring many soldiers to government posts that helped them ingratiate with the community.

And what happened to the teams? Carol still works in the CIA and with less violence in the world, she has more time with her family. Titus became the head of the newly dubbed 'World Military Force' which may sound like a super army but in fact it was soldiers or retired police officers that worked together to help cities and towns affected by natural disasters. They were the largest rescue force in the world, which meant he was always busy. The furies surprisingly opted to live a calm and peaceful live, which Monika had no problems with. She erased their identities and their crimes, gave them new lives, which they happily accepted.

Progress however was always met with opposition as there were many people in the world that did not want such an almighty being governing their actions and took to leaving the cities and living in the forests, away from all kinds of technology. There were also those, calling themselves 'Normies' who wanted the old world back and often resorted to violent methods to send their message across but he didn't care that much about them.

Barry opened the palace doors and saw Monika, dressed in the clothes that fit a being of her status. She noticed his presence and smiled, as she came towards him, advisors flanking her on both sides.

"What's going on Barry? You normally finish work late at night," asked she, sounding visibly concerned.

"Ah, well I thought now would be a good time to give you your present Monika," Barry said, with a sheepish smile.

"*ahem," interjected one of her advisors "I understand your need to help the queen but there are many subjects that we need to discuss with her majesty."

"Subjects that I will take care of in my own time. Thank you for your input now please leave" Monika said, and the advisors agreed. She turned back to Barry and whispered "They've been boring me the whole day. You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

The two exchanged a quick embrace before Barry led her to her room where her present waited.

"I'm hoping that this one's better than the robot dogs," added she, while being led to her room.

"Hey I maintain those are great presents. Who doesn't want a pair of super powerful metal dogs guarding and keeping them safe at all times?"

"I do," Monika replied and Barry sighed.

Upon reaching the door, Barry did not say a word. His expression grew soft followed by him opening the door and gesturing Monika to go inside while he watched quietly. When she entered the room, there was silence for a moment, but that silence was gone by the sound of a familiar tune being played on the piano.

Monika's eyes opened wide in shock upon seeing the piano player. Immediately she turned around but Barry was long gone.

As Barry headed back down the castle to being work for what was to be a 'surprising' dinner party with his old friends, he thought about how much his life changed on that fateful night. Ever since then it had been a roller coaster of events and he would not have it any other way.

When he was given control of all the technology and inventions hidden by the Governments of the world, Barry immediately poured himself into the possibility of creating a device that could make the impossible happen. The reason he never told another soul about this was because he did not want to get their hopes up in the event that his initial attempts failed.

And yes he failed spectacularly on many times in his impossible quest but Barry never gave up. He spent two and a half years working in secret, putting all his effort so that his two friends would finally be together.

If there was one thing that Barry learned during all of this it's that God's don't make miracles, humans do.

0000000000

Monika blinked a couple of times then slapped herself a few times as well to make sure that this was no dream. So many times she had dreamt of this reunion only to wake up to a cold and harsh reality.

"There's no need to doubt yourself," said he, gently placing his hand on her cheek, so that she could feel the warmth of his hand "Sorry I kept you waiting."

Monika didn't answer, she was too happy to be mad at him right now. Instead she slowly brought herself forward, connecting her lips with his, finally reuniting the two lovers.

 **AN:** that being said, after writing the chapters and understanding the characters more, there's no way I was going to let them become another 'tragic couple'. I apologize if this felt like a little trolling, that was never my intention. Its just that this way, the ending is happier than before.

Thanks a whole lot to the people who faved and followed my work. Thanks to all the guests who reviewed and always had some encouraging things to say.

Thanks a bunch to dawicc and PhoenixBJB who were the most vocal people I've seen in the review colums. You guys are awesome people.

Also thanks a lot to The Concept of Hope for pointing out certain mistakes and helping me evolve my writing style which I'm sure many of you would have noticed.

Finally I'd just like to say that I'll be going back to finish my God eater FF and if possible might start uploading chapters of my own original works. I am a writer and would love to keep improving my craft.

Thanks again to everyone in the community for being so welcoming.


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